Students from across Europe enjoyed attending a one-week conference exploring migration and refugee law at Kent’s Canterbury campus earlier this summer.
The Migration and Refugee Law Conference was organised by Hannah Loosley, Sonia Soares and Saja Alserhan from the European Law Student Association (ELSA) Kent, one of six student law societies at Kent Law School. Supported and partially funded by the Law School, the conference ran from Sunday 19 June to Saturday 25 June.
Conference attendee Lorenzo Rorro, who studies Politics and International Relations at Kent, said: ‘Even as a Politics student the conference and the talks were easily accessible and understandable. The historical and philosophical approaches of some of the academics that came were very compelling and they gave us insights on often neglected concepts, which carry with them specific connotations, remnant of their historical evolving. Moreover, against what many people may argue, the lives of refugees and asylum-seekers is all but easy once they have entered the UK, as they undergo long procedures and often face a hostile environment, which in my opinion should be more welcoming.’
Lecture topics included: ‘From Asylum to Management: a historical genealogy of asylum and refugium’ (by Dr Thanos Zartaloudis); ‘Migration and Human Rights’ (by Sian Lewis-Anthony); ‘Permanent residence: Permanent Problem?’ (by Graham Tegg); and ‘Migration Crisis: towards a theoretical interpretation (Serene John-Richards, PhD student at Kent Law School). Additional contributions included a talk by Caroline Browne of Samphire (a local charity supporting refugees) on immigrant detention and a talk by Alex Ntung, Head of Education at Charity Migration Help. The penultimate day of the conference coincided with the announcement of the result of the Brexit referendum in the UK and a discussion of the impact of the results was led by a panel comprised of EU law experts Dr Tobias Kliem, Professor Nick Grief and Martin Hedemann-Robinson.
An accompanying social programme for the conference included a boat ride on the River Stour, a visit to Canterbury Cathedral, a trip to the beach at Whitstable and a final meal on the Friday evening.
ELSA Kent is a local group of ELSA, the world’s largest law student and young lawyer network which spans 43 countries and consists of 40,000 members.