Cities of Thorns: the future of refugee camps

Ben Rawlence is a former researcher for Human Rights Watch in the horn of Africa. He is the author of Radio Congo, and has written for a wide range of publications including the Guardian, the London Review of Books and Prospect. In January of this year he published City of Thorns. Nine Lives in the Worlds Largest Refugee Camp (Portobello Books). According to The Guardian it is “a superb work that highlights the essential humanity of those faceless masses buffeted by events and desperately seeking salvation in one of the world’s most troubled spots.”

Luc Winants is mayor of Brunssum, Limburg. His municipality near the Dutch-German border hosts 200 Syrian refugees. When unrest about the refugee settlement erupted, Winants took several of the concerned citizens to a refugee camp in Lebanon in cooperation with charity organization Cordaid, in an attempt to change their minds.

Jan Rothuizen is a visual artist with a unique style of drawing, creating maps that express what he sees, thinks and feels whilst walking through cities all over the world. In his work, he melts the analogue with the digital, resulting in projects like Refugee Republic, an interactive transmedia documentary created with photographer Dirk Jan Visser and journalist Martijn van Tol in cooperation with de Volkskrant and Submarine Channel. For Refugee Republic, Rothuizen visualized life in refugee camp Domiz in northern Iraq.

Henk Wildschut is a photographer who exhibited his work in Amsterdam, Sydney, Shanghai, Beijing , London, Prague, Rome and The Hague, among other places. Ever since 2006 he has visited ‘The Jungle’ regularly, a concoction of tents and huts inhabited by refugees near te Calais harbour, as part of his long-term project Shelter. The Shelter project was awarded with the Kees Scherer prize for the best Dutch photobook of the years 2009/2010 and the prestigious Dutch Doc 2011 Award for best documentary project. From April 8th to June 5th, his exhibition Calais – From Jungle to City is on view at Foam Museum Amsterdam.

Ayaan Abukar is political scientist and expert in the field of Migration & Development and International Security.

Nancy Jouwe (moderator) studied Women Studies and Cultural History at Utrecht University and the University of York. As a professional (management, research, lecturing) she has worked for Utrecht University, Mama Cash, Kosmopolis Utrecht, Papua Heritage Foundation and SIT. She is connected as an advisor and board member to several cultural and heritage organizations such as Framer Framed, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, and others.

Rajin Alqallih is a Syrian student at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, pursuing a masters degree in social justice, conflict and human rights. She worked for UNHCR in Syria and Sudan between 2008 and 2015 as a Refugee Resettlement Officer.

A fearless work of reportage taking you inside Dadaab, the world's biggest and most notorious refugee camp, through the stories of the people who live there.
For this occasion available for €14,95