Bristol Student Action for Refugees


Student action for refugees ; supporting refugees everywhere protest star campaign


Past Evenets

2005

2005 saw an ongoing campaign called the ‘shoe campaign’. It involved setting up approximately sixty pairs of children’s shoes in various places around Bristol, in order to represent the number of unaccompanied minors being held in detention centres around Britain in any given week. The shoes moved around the city over two terms and eventually ended up in London. They attracted a lot of attention and we were able to gather a petition to send to the Home Office highlighting peoples concern that an asylum seekers plight is a difficult one anyway, but underage children need particular care and attention and shouldn’t be put in detention centres. Articles about the campaign appeared in Bristol University’s newspaper, The Epigram and also in the local paper, the Evening Post.

2006

Last year saw STAR joining fellow campaigning societies such as Stop AIDS Society, Crossing Borders, to host a performance of the ‘Asylum Monologues’. The play followed the lives of some asylum seekers through the asylum process, from fleeing their country to trying to gain refugee status in Britain. This was followed by a series of workshops by the different groups involved, awareness raising about the denial of secondary healthcare and HIV and AIDS treatment to failed asylum seekers and the issues surrounding this. STAR did organise a stall at the event and it was a pretty sucessful evening on the whole.

STAR was also involved in a demonstration to support the 'Save ESOL' campaign (English for speakers of other languages). We were also able to gather a large number of signatures for the petitons which were sent to the local MP. This campaign is still ongoing and furthur information on this topic can be obtained from the STAR national website or from any of the star committe members.

STAR also held a stall at the Conscience to campaign about the detention centres, which was pretty sucessful event on the whole.

Back to Top