Asylum's ripple effect

Year 8 students from Newham discuss refugees and asylum seekers for a radio programme.

Londoners who work with refugees often feel frustrated as they struggle to communicate the hardships that many individuals seeking refuge here have endured before their arrival.

The arguments about the rights and wrongs of immigration can eclipse the struggles and achievements of those who have gained asylum here.

One tool, which has helped get beyond public preconceptions and prejudices is Refugee Week.

I want to create a society here where compassion is built into our culture. Benjamin Zephaniah

This year marks its 11th year and the seven days of arts, cultural and educational events celebrate the contribution refugees make to the UK and seeks to encourage understanding between communities.

The week always takes place in June and anyone can get involved - though the chief organisers are large institutions like the Home Office, or charities like Oxfam and the Refugee Council.

It also has high profile support from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders as well as well-known performers like Colin Firth and Vanessa Redgrave.

The poet Benjamin Zephaniah says of it: 'I am British, I was born here and I have no intention of leaving here, so I want to create a society here where compassion is built into our culture, in this society we will be so aware of the world around us that we will not need a Refugee Week. Until then this is how we do it.'

Events during refugee week are by no means restricted to the capital, but naturally, with Britain's largest concentration of refugees here in London, we are well placed to enjoy what's on offer.

The week's big showpiece event is Celebrating Sanctuary, a free festival of music, dance and literature which takes place in Bernie Spain Gardens on the South Bank.

But there are many smaller initiatives, like the Simple Acts Campaign, designed to inspire individuals to use small, everyday actions, to change perceptions about refugees.

So far, there have been some 400 suggested simple acts, which range from cooking a dish from another country, to reading a book about exile or writing a letter to an MP.

And increasingly schools are getting involved in Refugee Week, using it as an opportunity to raise difficult issues about migration and asylum in the modern age.

BBC London was contacted by one school in Newham whose year 8 pupils had written a radio programme about their recent experiences when one of their classmates was deported back to India.

Certainly the perspective of those who are left behind in Britain is seldom explored when it comes to coverage of deportation, so we invited the 12 and 13-year-olds from Brampton Manor School, into the studio to record their work.

You can hear their tribute to Afsal, and about the impact his removal, detention and subsequent deportation had on the wider school community

For more information about Refugee Week, log onto www.refugeeweek.org.uk