Asylum Speakers Podcast with Jaz O'Hara: Stories of Migration

In this episode we hear the incredible story of Ayman Alhussein. Ayman is an actor, cinematographer and co-writer of amazing new short film, Matar, directed by Hassan Akkad, starring Ahmed Malek and available to watch online, for free on Waterbear.The film Matar tells the story of an undocumented delivery driver in London and highlights the challenges of navigating hostile environment Britain and its broken asylum system. This podcast episode brings you the incredible real life story behind the film. Ayman’s story. 

This week’s guest is one of my favourite storytellers ever. Filmmaker Nadir Nahdi speaks so beautifully about his upbringing spanning many cultures, the ways that food has woven those pieces together and why the stories he tells and the films he makes are so disruptively important in our society today. I was introduced to Nadir’s work through his most recent youtube series Bad Pakistani about his journey through Pakistan to explore and understand his Pakistani heritage. I loved it. His work spans themes of culture, travel, heritage, belonging, food and more - all my favourite topics. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did…To support the show: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribeThis episode is brought to you by Skin + Me - a personalized skincare solution that has not only transformed my skin, but also my packing experience wherever I’m going. Use the code ASYLUMSPEAKERS for an over 85% discount on your first month.

Welcome to the FINAL episode of The Journey!Today’s episode is designed to speak to that rhetoric that refugees or asylum seekers might be a burden... that they take from us, economically, culturally, or whatever that fear might be. I’m honoured to be able to share multiple examples of how much we have to gain from welcoming refugees and asylum seekers with open arms. This episode came to be because along this journey we met many people working in grassroots refugee response, who have lived experience of migration themselves. By this I mean, refugees, people who have been displaced themselves, going on to support others in their same situation. So this episode is about those inspirational people turning their struggle into something incredible, going full circle and using their knowledge, expertise and depth of understanding through personal experience, to give back to their community. This episode is in honour of them.We first hear from Nour and James, founders of The Great Oven. They build giant community ovens and donate them to those in need.Next we hear from my lovely friend Danika who works unaccompanied minors in Paris. Her approach to humanitarian work has always inspired me.Finally, we finish with some inportant words from Mustafa of Velos Youth.To find out more about the organisations featured in this episode:https://www.greatoven.org/https://velosyouth.org/To support this podcast:https://patreon.com/theworldwidetribeTo buy our merch:https://theworldwidetribeshop.com/–Many of the people we spoke to along this journey are being supported by projects funded by Comic Relief. Thanks to donations from the UK public, Comic Relief's Across Borders programme has invested over £7 million in organisations supporting refugees and people seeking asylum along these routes. Find out more about Comic Relief’s work and how to support it at comicrelief.com.

Welcome back to Episode FIVE of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe.Today’s episode is about what life looks like for people once they make it to their final destination. What is life like in their host country? What’s new and difficult? What does integration look like or even mean? What can we, as listeners do to help with this process?We begin this episode in Athens where we hear from the wonderful Murtaza from Afghanistan. We also hear from Anneke - founder of UK-bassed befriending service Host Nation, and two people who have benefitted from her service - Henry and Afeworki.We finish with some final words from Susie in Cairo and Dalal in Lebanon talking about life in your new country.To find out more about the organisations featured in this episode:https://www.hostnation.org.uk/https://velosyouth.org/To support this podcast:https://patreon.com/theworldwidetribeTo buy our merch:https://theworldwidetribeshop.com/–Many of the people we spoke to along this journey are being supported by projects funded by Comic Relief. Thanks to donations from the UK public, Comic Relief's Across Borders programme has invested over £7 million in organisations supporting refugees and people seeking asylum along these routes. Find out more about Comic Relief’s work and how to support it at comicrelief.com.

In his memoir about leaving Syria to life in the UK, my friend Hassan (also a previous podcast guest), shared the terrifying experience he had when attempting to reach Greece by boat. His rubber dinghy was approached by three masked men on a bigger boat, who stole their petrol tank and violently pushed them away from the shore. What Hassan experienced was a pushback.What are pushbacks you might ask, well…in short, a pushback is when refugees and migrants are forced back over a border, generally immediately after they have crossed it. It is not just illegal to send someone back without consideration or assessment of their individual circumstances, but the violence with which these pushbacks are often carried out is costing lives. Welcome back to Episode FOUR of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe.So far this season we’ve explored the reasons why people are leaving their countries, we’ve taken a look at what life looks like in the first countries they arrive to and we’ve delved into the risks they face along their journey’s.Today’s episode is a very important one. Before we went on this trip we had a rough idea of what the themes of these episodes might be…. But this one was unexpected. Pretty much every person we spoke to, and definitely in every country along the way we heard stories about pushbacks.In this episode we hear from academics, aid workers and also the testimony of someone who has actually lived the experience of being pushed back.This is a shocking topic and episode, but one I truly believe we all need to know about, as the first step to stopping these pushbacks from happening at our borders. To support this podcast:https://patreon.com/theworldwidetribeTo buy our merch:https://theworldwidetribeshop.com/

Welcome to Episode THREE of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe.So far this season we’ve explored the reasons why people are leaving their countries, and taken a look at what life looks like in the first countries they arrive to. As a result of how difficult things can be in that first country, we also know that many people are forced to continue their journey until they find a country where they can live in safety… But what do these journey’s look like? How do people cross borders, often without passports, visas or documentation? Do they use smugglers? Whats it like crossing the desert or the mountains or the sea? We might have seen the newspaper articles about how dangerous these journey’s can be, but let’s hear it directly from the people with lived experience…In this episode we hear from a young Afghan friend of mine, Shikhali, about how he crossed land and sea to make it to safety in France. We also hear some familiar voices such as Anne O'Rorke in Turkey, and Susie and Rashid in Egypt.To find out more about the organisations featured in this episode:https://tiafi.org/https://www.syrianeyes.org/https://stars-egypt.org/To support this podcast:https://patreon.com/theworldwidetribeTo buy our merch:https://theworldwidetribeshop.com/–Many of the people we spoke to along this journey are being supported by projects funded by Comic Relief. Thanks to donations from the UK public, Comic Relief's Across Borders programme has invested over £7 million in organisations supporting refugees and people seeking asylum along these routes. Find out more about Comic Relief’s work and how to support it at comicrelief.com.

Welcome back to Episode TWO of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe.People often ask me ‘Why don’t refugees stay in the first safe country they land in? It’s a comment I see a lot on social media and one I feel there is a lot of judgment and misinformation around. This episode is designed to answer exactly that. I’d like everyone who genuinely wonders about this question, to be able to listen to this and fully understand why a person’s journey can go on to span many countries.We’ll be hearing from six incredible women... both refugees and people working in the humanitarian space in countries like Turkey and Lebanon, that border Syria and other conflict zones….Our first stop in Turkey, the country which hosts the most refugees in the world. Here we visit Anne O'Rorke, an retired entrepreneur who left her home in Ireland to set up a community centre for Syrians in Turkey called Tiafi.Next up we head to Beirut where we hear from Dalal, who works for UNHCR, and my lovely friend Dara from Syrian eyes.The final stop is Egypt where you will hear from another four incredible women from Eritrea, South Sudan, Egypt and America about what life looks like for refugees here.It's a big and important episode. Remember to let me know your thoughts!To find out more about the organisations featured in this episode:https://tiafi.org/https://www.syrianeyes.org/https://stars-egypt.org/To support this podcast:https://patreon.com/theworldwidetribeTo buy our merch:https://theworldwidetribeshop.com/–Many of the people we spoke to along this journey are being supported by projects funded by Comic Relief. Thanks to donations from the UK public, Comic Relief's Across Borders programme has invested over £7 million in organisations supporting refugees and people seeking asylum along these routes. Find out more about Comic Relief’s work and how to support it at comicrelief.com.

I’m so happy to be bringing you episode 1 of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe.In this episode we’re starting from the beginning and exploring why people first embark on their journey. Why do people leave their countries and everything they ever knew behind? What are the push factors? We’ll be hearing from people from all over the world about the circumstances that forced them to first become a refugee. Our journey begins in North Africa, in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt, where we spent a week meeting many young people who have fled countries all over Africa, such as Eritrea, South Sudan, Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia and more, and are now living in Egypt. You will hear from Ahmad from Nigeria, Albino from South Sudan and Radhid from Somalia.We then head to Lebanon and hear from ‘M’ who shares a different reason for leaving his country - his sexuality. Next we head to Greece to hear from Mustafa, who runs Velos Youth - a wonderful organisation supporting young asylum seekers in Athens.Finally we hear a short poem from a young Syrian named Mohamed in Istanbul, Turkey.To find out more about the organisations featured in this episode:https://stars-egypt.org/https://velosyouth.org/To buy our merch:https://theworldwidetribeshop.com/To support this podcast:https://patreon.com/theworldwidetribe–Many of the people we spoke to along this journey are being supported by projects funded by Comic Relief. Thanks to donations from the UK public, Comic Relief's Across Borders programme has invested over £7millon in organisations supporting refugees and people seeking asylum along these routes. Find out more about Comic Relief’s work and how to support it at comicrelief.com.