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Refugee Week #2 | The Man Who Fell From The Sky: Panel Discussion
Watching a movie is one of the Simple Acts you can do to join this year’s Refugee Week. To mark World Refugee Day 2021 we are hosting a special (virtual) screening of “The Man Who Fell From The Sky”, the stranger-than-fiction story of the most extreme journey ever made by a human being. In 2015 two men stowed away in the landing gear of a plane flying from Johannesburg to London. One of them fell to his death in Richmond - making worldwide headlines - but miraculously his companion survived. Richard's investigation takes five years to complete as he battles the authorities who don't want him delving into this subject. His search for answers takes him round the world before ending up in Liverpool, UK. Here he finally comes face to face with one man who offers a heart-breaking and illuminating account of what happened on that flight.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion that will address some of the questions raised in the movie, such as the complex reasons behind migration decision making and why people seeking sanctuary may feel they have no choice other than to embark on perilous journeys, and what happens to the loved ones left behind. The event will also be the chance to shed light on the dire need for institutional frameworks and adequate support in the UK and elsewhere for families of migrants who went missing during migration journeys, an issue highlighted in IOM’s latest report Families of Missing Migrants: Their Search for Answers, the Impacts of Loss and Recommendations for Improved Support.
Simple Acts for Refugee Week 2021
Change starts with simple acts. Taking a walk in someone else’s shoes is a simple but powerful act and you can do so by just pressing play & joining our event to celebrate Refugee Week 2021 together.
Watch a Movie! Watch “The Man Who Fell from the Sky”, comfortably in your own time, it is free for you to access on the Channel 4 website, here.
Join the Live Event! Join our online event on Thursday 17th June, 3-4 pm, register for free here and you will receive a link to join.
"The Man Who Fell From The Sky": Panel Discussion
Thursday 17 June, 3-4pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR FREE
Speakers
- Rich Bentley
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Rich Bentley is an award-winning content creator with over 18 years’ experience in film and television. Rich produces content for all the major platforms and was nominated for Best Break Through Talent at the Royal Television Society Awards. His work includes on and off-screen content along with spearheading multiple global impact campaigns including #findmike which highlighted mental health and gained a global reach of 450 million people. In 2010 Rich co-founded POSTCARD, an independent studio creating content for social good alongside acclaimed director Sam Forsdike. Rich is currently working on his latest project, an independent feature-length documentary which follows the extraordinary stories of those living through the conflict in Yemen.
Watch “The Man Who Fell From the Sky” on Channel 4 hereFind out more about #FindMike campaign and The Stranger On The Bridge a documentary produced as part of the #FindMike campaign.
Learn more about Postcard a small multiple award-winning independent production company that specialises in making film content that engages with social change.
- Sia Kondeh
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Sia Kondeh has been working with IOM since 2017 where, amongst other things, she undertakes projects and research on Migration and Development including working with various diaspora communities, and diverse stakeholders for development and humanitarian initiatives in the UK, and in countries of origin around the world. In the past year, she also researched the policies and legal structures in the UK relevant to people who have missing migrant relatives and she is one f the co-author of IOM latest report on missing migrants in the UK. Sia has a legal background and prior to IOM, she worked with legal service providers to provide legal and commercial advise on business, investment, and development initiatives including to labour migrants and diaspora expatriates in the United Kingdom, and in Sierra Leone. Find out more about IOM UK's work on Migration & Development here.
- Samuel Okyere
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Samuel Okyere is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) at University of Bristol, and a founding member of the Beyond Trafficking and Slavery hub on OpenDemocracy. He specialises in critical reflections on the interplay between human rights, power, inequality, ethnicity, and class under conditions of globalisation. Over the last decade he has carried out extensive field research on mobilities (migration, trafficking and smuggling) and migrants lived experiences, childhood and child rights, forced and precarious labour. As part of IOM research, Dr. Samuel Okyere spoke with people with missing migrant family members in Bristol, London and Nottingham. They were originally from Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ghana.
To find out more about IOM's report “Families of Missing Migrants: Their Search for Answers, the Impacts of Loss and Recommendations for Improved Support”.
Listen to Samuel Okyere who spoke with families in the UK who have missing migrant relatives in Episode 3 of "Living without them - stories of families left behind"
Find out more about Beyond Trafficking and Slavery hub on OpenDemocracy.
- Ahmad al-Rashid
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Ahmad al-Rashid is a Forced Migration and Integration Researcher. He is originally from Aleppo, Syria. He completed a BA in English literature before leaving Syria to the Kurdistan region of Iraq late 2012. Ahmad worked there as a volunteer teaching English in the Syrian refugee camps. In mid-2013 he joined UNICEF to work for both the Syrian refugee response and the Iraqi displaced people response after Mosul fell for ISIS in 2014. Ahmad moved to the UK mid-2015. In 2017, Ahmad graduated from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) – University of London. He holds an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development.
Ahmad al-Rashid was also part of a BAFTA award winning documentary ‘’ Exodus – Our Journey to Europe’’- BBC, 2015. Visit links below to watch the 3-part series documentary:
Exodus Our Journey To Europe Ep. 01
- Tauhid Pasha
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Tauhid Pasha has worked for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) since 2007. He is currently the Senior Coordinator for the DFID-funded Safety, Support and Solutions along the Central Mediterranean Route Programme. He was Senior Specialist on Labour Mobility and Human Development at IOM’s headquarters in Geneva, providing technical and policy guidance to governments and other stakeholders, and support to IOM’s regional offices worldwide. Tauhid qualified as a solicitor in the UK where he practised immigration law and headed the immigration team of a large legal aid law firm before taking up post from 2001-2007 as the Legal and Policy Director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), one of the UK’s leading immigration campaign organisations.
Find out more about IOM's Safety, Support and Solutions Programme along the Central Mediterranean Route. The programme has provided critical humanitarian and protection support to migrants at key junctures along the route. Assistance is offered to migrants in transit and on return, with a focus on victims of trafficking, unaccompanied children and migrants in very vulnerable situations.
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For information please contact asoleiman@iom.int