Fractured

Every year on June 20th, the world celebrates World Refugee Day to "honor those who have been forced to flee". 

At ReFOCUS we believe that day should focus on advocacy for refugee rights, which are very frequently overlooked or not acknowledged on purpose. 

So today we are bringing several strong voices of people who went through the asylum process or are still in it. We want you to hear their thoughts on World Refugee Day, their situation and the process they went through. We want you to hear from them instead of about them.

Guests of the episode: Eli Fazlollah, Milad Ebrahimi, Hussain Ali Yaqubi, Reza Adib

Host of the episode: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editing: Majid Bakhshi and Paul Simon

Production: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs 

Contact: [email protected]

Music credit: Piano by LesFM, DD Groove by Kevin MacLeod, Heartbreaking by Kevin MacLeod

So far this year more than 1000 people have died or were categorised as missing while trying to cross to the European Union through the Mediterranean Sea or one of the EU Southern borders. Many people who take this dangerous journey do not have any documents with them. When they die at the borders it is extremely difficult to identify them and then find their family to inform them about the tragedy. Forensic Missing Migrant Initiative is one of very few organisations in the Mediterranean region that tries to identify those who died while crossing by creating their specific profiles.

Guest of the episode: Dr Jan Bikker, Forensic Missing Migrant Initiative

Host of the episode: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editing: Majid Bakhshi

Production: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs 

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound and ANBR - Thoughts

Contact: [email protected]

In the past several years, the detention of asylum seekers in Greece has transformed from a last resort measure into a standard procedure. Many asylum seekers spend months in Pre Removal Detention Centers without any knowledge why they have been detained or when they will be released. Recently, the Mobile Info Team and the Border Violence Monitoring Network have published reports about the facilities, uncovering inhumane conditions and severe human rights violations.

Guest of the episode: Manon Louise and Hope Barker

Host of the episode: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editing: Majid Bakhshi

Production: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs 

Production Assistant: Paul Simon

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound and ANBR - Thoughts

Contact: [email protected]

On April 25th the Lithuanian parliament passed legislation to make it legal to deny entry to asylum seekers. We know the country had already been engaged in pushbacks since at least end of  2021, when thousands of migrants and refugees — mainly from the Middle East and Africa - were entering the European Union via Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. Many human rights organisations as well as the European Court of Justice highlighted that pushbacks are an illegal procedure that violates international law. Lithuanian activists petitioned the president to veto the law, however their campaign failed.

Guest of the episode: Dalia Krapavitskaitė, Sienos Grupė

Host of the episode: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editing: Majid Bakhshi

Production: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs 

Production Assistant: Paul Simon

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound and ANBR - Thoughts

Contact: [email protected]

Italy’s government has declared a six-month national state of emergency to cope with asylum seekers reaching its southern shores. The state of emergency was announced right after Easter weekend, during which around 2,000 people arrived by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The only other time a state of emergency was activated over migration in Italy was in 2011 under the Berlusconi government in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Guest of the episode: Giulia Messmer, Sea-Watch

Host of the episode: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editing: Majid Bakhshi

Production, Sonia Nandzik-Herman, Douglas Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs 

Production Assistant: Paul Simon

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound and ANBR - Thoughts

Contact: [email protected]

Last year the UK government proposed a scheme which would deport asylum-seekers who have entered the country illegally to their home countries or to have their asylum claims handled in Rwanda.

The first deportation flight was blocked by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights. London’s High Court ruled in December that the scheme was legal, however human rights defenders are seeking to appeal it.

And just recently the government introduced the so called Illegal Migration Bill, which except for the controversial Rwanda deal proposes a series of measures to tackle migration to the UK, including detaining asylum seekers in military bases.

Guest of the episode: Katy Fallon

Host of the episode: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editing: Majid Bakhshi

Production, Sonia Nandzik-Herman, Douglas Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs 

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound and ANBR - Thoughts

In September 2020 the most infamous refugee camp in Europe burned almost completely. 14 000 people living inside Moria have yet again lost everything. After 5 days the Greek authorities declared that they had found people guilty of this crime and soon will put them on trial. Those 6 young Afghan men are now known to the world as Moria 6. However there are many question marks in the prosecutor's argumentation, which is based on testimonies of one individual that police couldn't locate at the moment of the trial. Forensic Architecture prepared a comprehensive report on the two days of the fire using high level expertise and sources available from multiple sources. The report questions the testimonies of the alleged witness and may me a crown evidence in releasing the Moria 6.

The whole report of Forensic Architecture available on: https://vimeo.com/802660147/f795ef4fb3

Guest of the episode: Dimitra Andritsou, research coordinator at Forensis

Host of the episode: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editing: Majid Bakhshi

Production, Sonia Nandzik-Herman, Douglas Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs 

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound

Russia initiated a full-scale invasion on Ukraine almost exactly a year ago. As an outcome of the aggression more than 8 milion Ukrainians had to flee to other countries. 4,8 mln of them have been registered for temporary protection or a similar national protection scheme in Europe. Most of them went to Poland, which currently hosts more than 1,5 mln refugees from Ukraine. In addition, 5,3 milion Ukrainians are internally displaced. There hasn't been a single Ukrainian whose life wouldn't be affected by this aggression. 

In this episode of Fractured we focus on Ukrainian refugees and internal situation in the country as well as the prognostics for Ukraine for the future.

Episode guest: Lesia Ogryzko

Episode host: Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Editor: Majid Bakhshi

Production: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, Douglas Herman, ReFOCUS Media Labs

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound

Humanitarian action in Europe has been increasingly criminalised over the last years. France and Italy have forbidden citizens from giving food, water, and shelter to refugees and migrants. Hungary passed the so called "Stop Soros" law, criminalising individuals and NGOs helping migrants claim asylum. Poland criminalises aid at the Polish-Belarusian border. But no case gets for media attention at this moment than the Free Humanitarians one. In this episode Sean Binder, who is prosecuted on Lesvos for his humanitarian actions talks about the danger of the EU and national laws that allow to imprison people who simply show solidarity with those seeking asylum.

Episode hosted by Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Guest: Sean Binder

Edit: Majid Bakhshi

Production: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, DouglasHerman in cooperation with ReFOCUS Media Labs citizen journalists

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound

More on: @refocusmedialabs

“Citizen of Moria” - a documentary by Jawad Mir and Ahmad Ebrahimi presents Ahmad’s experiences in Moria camp as an asylum seeker but also as a filmmaker who had to flee Afghanistan leaving his whole life behind. Moria burned down back in 2020, but for years it has been a symbol of the lack of respect for human rights and dignity. In this episode of Fractured Ahmad Ebrahimi and Jawad Mir describe how they experienced that place and discuss the responsibility for the situation in Moria and in similar places.

You can watch “Citizen of Moria” on demand on: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/citizenofmoria

Episode hosted by Sonia Nandzik-Herman

Guests: Ahmad Ebrahimi, Jawad Mir

Edit: Majid Bakhshi

Production: Sonia Nandzik-Herman and DouglasHerman

Music: ES_No Time for Fear - Christian Andersen on Epidemic Sound

More on: @refocusmedialabs