Centre for Applied Human Rights
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- York hosts refugee conference in Delhi
CAHR hosts conference on refugee protection in Delhi
Posted on 15 January 2019
The initial room in the installation Passage to Asylum, a series of six contiguous rooms symbolically depicting the various stages of a refugee’s life — from a happy home to facing an asylum tribunal.
The conference was organised by the Migration and Asylum Project of the Ara Trust, a leading research and legal advocacy organisation on refugee issues in India. Martin noted in his remarks that the law abhors a vacuum: "Even in the absence of national or international legal frameworks, local lawyers make legal arguments - and can be successful - based on local norms and traditions." One of the subjects of discussion at the conference was the ongoing litigation before the Indian Supreme Court on the refoulement of the Rohingya in India.
As part of his visit to India, Martin also met with the Ara Trust, one of the local partners in the Law of Asylum project (funded by the ESRC and the GCRF). The project also funded a critically praised and popular immersive art installation in Delhi coinciding with the conference. The installation, Passage to Asylum, takes visitors through the refugee experience in a series of "rooms" representing different stages in a refugee's journey to safety. The exhibit has been glowingly reviewed in all national newspapers and has attracted critical praise from Architectural Digest.