In this episode, we speak to Rebecca Yeo, about her recent book Disabling Migration Control. In it, Rebecca draws on her many years of organizing within the disabled people’s movement and against borders, and more specifically on her engagement with disabled people in the asylum system in the UK, to argue that borders are disabling. People with existing impairments are further disabled by the restrictions of the immigration system. And these also create new impairments, particularly high levels of mental distress.

Rebecca draws on those years of organizing and engagement to explore what we can learn from each other across movements, what it takes to truly be in solidarity with one another, and how we might collectively resist, and disable, borders.

To capture her politics, and the spirit in which she wrote her book, Rebecca brings a recording of the song El Pueblo, Unido, Jamás Será Vencido to the episode, because indeed, The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated. And she brings the voices of two of her interlocutors, who tell us how navigating the asylum system is a 'constant battle', and how that 'makes you lose your mind.'

The work of resisting such a system is collective, and throughout the book, and in the episode, Rebecca mentions the people and collectives she has been working with. One of them is community artist Andrew Bolton, with whom Rebecca collaborated several times to create murals, together with disabled people across different communities. The murals are reproduced in the book, and you can find them, and learn more about them on www.disabilitymurals.org.uk/about.php

Currently, amongst many other things, Rebecca is working to foster shared learning, solidarity, and collectively resistance through the Disability and Migration Network (DAMN). This episode was recorded in January 2025, and at the time, Rebecca and others at DAMN and the DPAC Crip Tank were planning a conference called DAMN Borders! The conference is fully booked but you can learn more about the work of DAMN and get information about future events on https://disability-migration.org.uk/network