Border Country exhibition and book launch:

antrim | racism & migration related issues | event notice Tuesday November 13, 2007 15:24 by Rachael Wilson - Belfast Exposed Photography info at belfastexposed dot org 23 Donegall Street, Belfast BT1 2FF 02890230965

Event: Thursday Nov 15, 7pm at Belfast Exposed

Belfast Exposed’s latest exhibition, Border Country by Melanie Friend opens this Thursday evening in the gallery in Donegall Street.

Melanie Friend spent four years documenting the physical structures of UK Immigrant Removal Centres (IRC), while recording the voices of detainees. She will make a short presentation about her work at the opening on Thursday evening: "By August 2003 I had negotiated access with the Home Office and the Governor of Dover… over three years I interviewed nine detainees… however transfers from and to IRCs across the country can happen suddenly as can removals….."

Domestic Visits Room, Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, July 2006

Border Country

By Melanie Friend

Exhibition & book launch event at Belfast Exposed Gallery of Photography, Thursday 15 November, 7 – 9pm

Belfast Exposed’s latest exhibition, Border Country by Melanie Friend opens this Thursday evening in the gallery in Donegall Street. (see attached)

Melanie Friend spent four years documenting the physical structures of UK Immigrant Removal Centres (IRC), while recording the voices of detainees. She will make a short presentation about her work at the opening on Thursday evening:

‘By August 2003 I had negotiated access with the Home Office and the Governor of Dover… over three years I interviewed nine detainees… however transfers from and to IRCs across the country can happen suddenly as can removals… I listened to Afsham’s story of flight from persecution, and of her fear of punishment from Sharia law, I felt the immense gulf between her life and mine.’

Anna Morven, Immigration Advisor at the Law Centre and Chair of Northern Ireland’s Refugee Action Group will open the exhibition and talk about her experience as legal officer of the charity, Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID).

‘In Northern Ireland, immigration detainees were held in prisons here until a recent policy change. It is now the practice of the Border and Immigration Agency that people are moved from Northern Ireland to Scotland or England where they are detained in Immigration Removal Centres… Immigration detention is an administrative power. It is not sanctioned by any court and there is no maximum time limit on detention. Every detainee has the right to apply for bail. Yet a vast number of immigration detainees have no lawyer who is willing to assist them to challenge their detention’ Anna Morven

Melanie Friend will be in Belfast until the16th of November and available for interviews to discuss her four year investigative project into immigration, detention centres and asylum seekers in the UK.

Border Country

By Melanie Friend

PRESS RELEASE ATTACHED
Exhibition runs from 16 November 07 – 11 January 08

NOTE TO EDITOR:
For further information or hi-resolution scans, please contact Rachael Wilson on +44 (0)28 90230965 or email [email protected]

Border Country is supported by Belfast Exposed Photography, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI), Belfast City Council,
Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Arts Council of England (ACE),
the Research Fund of the School of Humanities, University of Sussex, Fotonet, the University of Southampton,
Spectrum in Hove and Metro Imaging in London. The book is co-published by Belfast Exposed Photography and the Winchester Gallery.

Image Caption: Harmondsworth.jpg
Domestic Visits Room, Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, July 2006
From Border Country by Melanie Friend
Courtesy of Belfast Exposed Photography

Image Caption: Lindholme.jpg
Detainees’ recreation area, Lindholme Immigration Removal Centre, April 2006
From Border Country by Melanie Friend
Courtesy of Belfast Exposed Photography

Belfast Exposed Photography
The Exchange Place | 23 Donegall Street | BELFAST | BT1 2FF
T: 028 9023 0965 W: www.belfastexposed.org E: [email protected]

Detainees’ recreation area, Lindholme Immigration Removal Centre, April 2006

Border Country event details 0.05 Mb