London: Migration Museum opens

George Alagiah and Lord Dubs

The Migration Museum was officially launched in London on Wednesday evening by Barbara Roche, former Minster of State for Immigration, author Robert Winder, with guest speakers Lord Alf Dubs, campaigner for child refugees and George Alagiah, BBC News presenter.

Based around the corner from Lambeth Palace, in an echoey old fire engine repair garage, visitors arrive through doors labelled 'boarding' and 'arrivals' - to see a quote from Robert Winder: 'Ever since the first Jute, the first Saxon, the first Roman and the first Dane leaped off their boats and planted their feet on British mud, we have been a migrant nation. Our roots are neither clean nor straight; they are impossibly tangled.'

The project, as Barbara Roche explained, is dedicated to documenting and exploring how people have moved to and from Britain over the years. It includes videos, sculptures, drawings, paintings and objects from the Calais Jungle, images from the Mediterranean refugee camps, and photos of foreign-born people now living in the UK. Later this month, the museum will open an exhibition about the personal items that migrants bring with them to the UK called 'Keepsakes.'

Barbara Roche explained that the museum will be at this location for a year, but will be used as a springboard for a permanent museum.

George Alagiah, who was born in Sri Lanka and brought here as a child by his parents, praised the project, saying it was “an idea whose time has come.” “This is a place where everybody can find their British identity,” he said.

Alagiah described how he had recently taken his family back to Sri Lanka to show them where their family came from. He said: “I wanted to show them that we didn’t come here empty-handed” They came with the capacity to work and wanted to work.

Lord Alf Dubs, who introduced the Dubs Amendment to the Immigration Bill to bring unaccompanied refugee children - some as young as five - to Britain last year, spoke of his own experience in 1939 when, at the age of six he was brought to England on the Kindertransport. At that time the UK took in nearly 10,000 mainly Jewish children who were placed in foster homes, hostels schools and farms within a very short time.

In 2016, the UK government agreed to bring in 3,000 children - but by March this year, only 350 had been allowed in and the government announced that the scheme was to be stopped. Recently they agreed to take in an addition 140 children but this falls well short of the original pledge. Speaking with ICN after the presentations, Lord Dubs said: “If someone comes to your door on the election campaign ask them what they will do for child refugees.”

Read more about the Migration Museum here: www.migrationmuseum.org

The museum also hosts events around the city - during the last Bank holiday, actors Tim Bentinck, Matthew Kelly and Bill Bingham took part in an open air performance to mark the 500th anniversary of the ‘Ill May Day- riots against Dutch, Flemish and other foreigners by St Martins le Grand near St Paul's Cathedral. A speech by William Shakespeare from his play 'Sir Thomas More', was one of the pieces read. See: www.bl.uk/collection-items/shakespeares-handwriting-in-the-book-of-sir-thomas-more

See ICN's Facebook page for more pictures.