On 1st October, the Scottish Refugee Council and Refugee Survival Trust launched their campaign calling for the end to destitution. In Scotland, 1 in 4 people seeking asylum will experience a period of destitution, surviving on favours from friends, family or charity.
‘Destitution’ has been commissioned by British Red Cross, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Scottish Refugee Council and is directed and produced by Chris Leslie. We first shared an extract of this hard-hitting film by award-winning documentary maker Chris Leslie during the launch of Take A Stand, our Learn project inspired by the Glasgow Girls.
The film tells the story of three refused asylum seekers Ako from Kurdistan, Michael from Zimbabwe and Mohsen from Iran and their poignant struggle to cope with destitution.
Simon Sharkey says “The National Theatre of Scotland was keen to be involved in supporting this film as a companion piece to our forthcoming theatre production of Glasgow Girls. Glasgow Girls is ultimately a positive story of struggle over adversity, but I wanted to ensure that the Company was also involved in highlighting the bigger picture of what happens to asylum seekers in Scotland. The issues of destitution are wider, urgent and unresolved and they need to be addressed.”
Find out more about the campaign, watch the film in full and contribute your name to the online petition at stopdestitution.org.uk
For further info on asylum and refugee issues in Scotland please visit scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk
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