‘They need and deserve our help’: introducing the Refugees Crossing art project
Tucked away in bus stops, on trains and at pedestrian crossings across UK cities and towns, Bern O’Donoghue’s paper boat art project is challenging the use of derogatory language and misinformation about refugees, migrants and immigrants
Some of the 2,800 boats representing the people who have died in 2015 trying to cross the Mediterranean Photograph: Bern O’Donoghue“Does Europe have a migrant crisis or are we just trying to ignore a humanitarian crisis?”
Over the last few months Bern O’Donoghue has been unhappy about what she sees as an unethical position the UK government has taken on the refugee crisis. “The language used by the government to describe the refugees, and the unwillingness to offer more help to people arriving in Europe asking for basic human rights has left me ashamed.”
In order to challenge the use of derogatory language and misinformation about refugees, migrants and immigrants, O’Donoghue has created the art projectRefugees Crossing, asking people to put fact filled paper boats in places where people travel and congregate. “We all need to help these people and engage the government to take a more compassionate position. Each paper boat has a fact about refugees on them. I’d like the boats to be seen in towns and cities across the UK, to remind people that refugees need and deserve our help.”
Photograph: Bern O’Donoghue
While the boats are being shared by people in the UK, recent interest from residents of New York and Budapest confirms the project is gaining momentum. “So far I’ve had at least 45 people sign up. I’ve been asking people to get involved properly since the beginning of last week and I’ve sent out nine packs so far. Those who have signed up have been very enthusiastic and they are also getting friends and work colleagues involved.”
Photograph: Bern O’Donoghue
Bern encourages people to share their images on social media. “If you share the boats on Twitter, please give the location plus #refugeecrisis and #MigrantLivesMatter. Balanced information about the crisis as part of your upload is also welcomed. The more we share the real information about these people, the sooner they’ll receive the help needed.”
Here are just some of the paper boats that have been ordered and placed in public places around the country:
“Most people I know and mix with are supportive of immigration and asylum and refugees and know the difference but it is clear from a minority I meet and from below the line comments in news and social media that there is ignorance and prejudice. So anything that helps overcome that is good in my book. Plus it’s a small thing I can do” – Christo, Leytonstone
Photograph: Christo, Leytonstone
“I got involved because much of the reporting of this issue is appalling, and myths around migration abound. I got so frustrated with some attitudes to migrants and refugees in my own town that I set up Folkestone United to counter negative rhetoric, and to bring together all those who see migration as a positive thing. We have to find as many different ways of getting our message out into the world as we can” – Bridget Chapman, Folkestone
Photograph: Bridget Chapman
“This project has spoken to many of us in Bury St Edmunds Quaker Meeting. Our book of discipline reminds us: ‘That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right.’ We hope that in distributing these little boats round one English town, we will challenge both ourselves and our neighbours” – Jill, Suffolk
Photograph: Jill, Suffolk
“It would be hard not to be moved by the plight of the Syrian refugees who are being hit from all sides. However, the response from the public has been heartening and totally at odds with that of our government. This small gesture is just one way of saying that the government does not speak for all of us and is an imaginative way of countering the negative reporting of the mainstream national press” – Tom Batty
Photograph: Tom Batty
“I am the great-granddaughter of migrants. I have been a migrant. And I want to live in a country that offers a warm welcome to those forced to leave their homes because of war and persecution. Taking part in this project is a creative way of responding to the humanitarian crisis Europe is currently grappling with, and of saying that migrants and refugees are welcome in my hometown of Manchester” – Rebecca Hurst
Photograph: Rebecca Hurst
“The main reason I got involved with this project was to help challenge the extremely negative narrative that has come constantly from the media directed at this crisis. When words such as immigrant, migrant and even refugee begin to be used in a pejorative sense, something is very, very wrong. I think the boats are a powerful image and placing them in places where people are travelling is pertinent. If just one person picks up one of the boats I’ve placed, reads the caption and it makes them think, then I feel like I have done something.” – MrsVB
Photograph: MrsVB
Photograph: Bob Farrell
“We need as many British citizens as possible demanding that our government stops denying humans humanity wherever it can get away with it. It’s fundamental that we disrupt the cultivation of hate and fear by media outlets in the UK. Time to create our own counter-dialogue, where we push for a radical redefinition of the word ‘refugee’ and what we expect for each one of them” – Cate Johnston
Photograph: Cate Johnston
Photograph: Ian O’Donoghue
“The photos in the media of the suffering of the people trying to escape danger are heart rending. I am happy to be part of raising awareness by placing these wonderful little boats in as many places as I can” – Kathleen Madigan
Photograph: Kathleen Madigan
Photograph: Hannah George
Photograph: Nina