British Red Cross’ ‘Seeking Sanctuary’ - an immersive refugee experience

The British Red Cross’ Seeking Sanctuary, charts the story of 150 years of the Red Cross Movement’s work helping millions of refugees throughout their history.

Seeking Sanctuary re-imagines the trials, desperation and hope of real-life refugees in a ground-breaking immersive experience formed by a series of cross-art-form and theatre installations.
Like every refugee, each audience member’s journey is unique. Their experience is dependent on the identification papers they receive on beginning the journey and whether or not they ‘pass’ each checkpoint – medical, immigration or border control at different stages of the journey.

Curated by acclaimed Sunday Times photojournalist Paul Conroy, who was injured covering the Syrian crisis in 2012, the British Red Cross experience asks the public to challenge their preconceptions about the refugee’s plight, and spend an hour in the shoes of the displaced.

Within the stark, industrial depths of The Vaults, audiences are led on an emotive, multi-sensory journey tracking the various challenges of nine refugees as they are forced from their homes in search of sanctuary.

The stories recreated include a portrayal of Dadaab, home to 900,000 Somali refugees and boasting the title of largest refugee camp in the world. Here the audience will be immersed in the sights and smells of the camp as wafts of spices from Somali recipes engulf them, and refugees from the camp share their stories and teach traditional Somali dance.

Featuring work from UK-based refugee artists depicting stories of crisis from Somalia, The Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Bosnia, Syria, Rwanda, Vietnam and Uganda within periods ranging from the 1950’s to the present day, the experience gives audiences more than a simple narrative – it offers a snapshot of the culture and homes that survival dictated they leave behind. Whether listening to the testimonial of a Vietnamese 11 year old refugee re-homed in a starkly different British place, or poetry from a Zimbabwean lecturer at S.O.A.S, the experience is a truly global representation of the scale and reach of the work that the Red Cross undertakes.

The event culminates in a photography and multimedia exhibition, bringing the experience right up to present day, featuring portrayals of UK-based Syrian refugees that the British Red Cross has been working with. Captured by Paul Conroy in their new homes, some have been granted asylum, some are still waiting to hear, and some exist in the no man’s land stage between appeal and decision.

The portraits, videos and testimonials of Syrian individuals and families, many of whom are professionals including teachers, pharmacists and artists, provide an insight into the struggle that refugees face even after arriving in the UK.