Asylum Speakers Podcast with Jaz O'Hara: Stories of Migration and Displacement

In 2015, two young men called Carlito and Justin, hid inside the wheel well of a plane flying from Johannesburg in South Africa, to London. As the wheels of the plane were lowered for landing, Carlito fell from the sky, to his death on the roof of an office building in West London. Against all odds, his best friend Justin survived, and was found on the runway at Heathrow airport.

Today I speak to Rich Bentley, a filmmaker from London who spent five years looking for Justin and making a film about Justin and Carlito’s story called The Man who fell from The Sky. Rich’s film aims to show the human story behind making such a desperate and dangerous decision.

There have only been 128 people ever recorded to have attempted a journey like this... and only 24 of them have survived. This is not surprising because at every stage you are brought close to death. You can fall from the plane as it takes off, be crushed by the wheels as they retract back into the plane, or die from the temperate during the flight which reaches as low as -81 degrees. You will without a doubt at least lose consciousness in these conditions, which means you are then likely to fall from the plane as the wheels are lowered for landing.

In this episode Rich tells us about meeting a few miraculous survivors including Baswee - the first person to ever attempt doing this in 1946 when he was just 12 years old. He was fleeing Indonesia after the death of his parents. We also talk about when he met Osama, a 27-year-old palestinian from Gaza who hid beneath a plane from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

But for the most part we talk about Carlito and Justin, who attempted this feat just a few years ago. It feels close to home because they were heading for London, which is actually the most popular destination for wheel well stowaways, with 16 in the last 25 years.

Carlito was raised in an orphanage in Mozambique and Justin was from a township in Johannesburg, This is where the two of them met, became friends and lived in a tent together whilst trying to survive.

And that’s the common thread in all these stories right. Behind every headline about migrants trying to make it to the UK, lies an individual story of someone driven by the dream of a better life.

I hope you enjoy our conversation today. Not only do we cover this important story, but we also talk storytelling with social purpose, we talk bias, privilege and using Rich’s film as a journalistic tribute to all those in search of safety.

Watch Rich's film here: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-man-who-fell-from-the-sky

To support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an episode and a story that I’ve been wanting to share for nearly two years... and I am so happy to finally be able to do so!

This episode is about my Eritrean foster brother Mez and his younger brother Josi. A few years after Mez left Eritrea to avoid compulsory military service, so too did his little brother Josi. Josi is two years younger than Mez and they grew up doing everything together. They wore the same clothes, liked all the same things and Mez described him as being his little shadow. So despite Mez’s warnings of how dangerous it was, it’s no wonder that when he also became of age to be called up to the military, Josi chose to follow in his older brothers footsteps and flee the dictatorship in which he lived, in the hope of joining his older brother here in the UK.

Unfortunately, since Mez made the 9-month journey, things have only got harder, and Josi has spent the last four years on this journey. Most of that time he has been trapped in Libya, trying to cross the Mediterranean sea to make it to the safety of Europe. He has attempted the sea crossing four times, been captured by the Libyan coastguard four times, thrown into Libyan smuggler prison and suffered the unimaginable horrors that come with that. Beatings, torture, modern day slavery, starvation and more.

This is the story of how Mez has spent the last few years doing everything he possibly can to get his brother to safety. It's a very personal episode and I hope you enjoy it. Part two coming soon!

--

To support the show: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

This episode is brought to you by Skin + Me - a personalized skincare solution that has not only transformed my skin, but also my packing experience wherever I’m going. Use the code ASYLUMSPEAKERS for an over 85% discount on your first month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The whole world was shocked by the footage of last week’s explosion in Beirut. It hardly looked real. But amongst the thousands of videos of the blast and the statistics being reported in the press internationally, are the hundreds of thousands of people who have been impacted by the tragedy.

Today you will hear from two of these people, Lebanese rapper and director at Beirut Records, Jeff Bourjaili, and Syrian refugee and communications officer at SB Overseas, Ahmad Hafez. Both of them call Beirut home.

In this episode, both guests share their important and different perspectives on the explosion. Jeff, whose home in the neighbourhood of Gemmayze in the city centre, has been completely destroyed, explores the failings of the Government and the frustration of the Lebanese people.

Ahmad Hafez, who has been living in Beirut since 2018 when he fled compulsory military service in his hometown of Aleppo, represents the huge refugee population living in and around Beirut. An estimated up to 1 million Syrians live in the city, and around 1.5 million Syrians live across Lebanon.

Ahmad Hafez also works for the incredible grassroots charity SB Overseas, who focus mainly on education and empowerment for displaced people in Lebanon - predominantly Syrians and Palestinians. In Beirut, SB Overseas run a beautiful school for the Syrian children living in Shatila refugee camp, which I had the pleasure of spending some time in last year. Even though Shatila camp is pretty far outside of the city centre, it’s residents were still impacted by the explosion and Ahmad Hafez explains the heartbreaking effects on his community.

In the aftermath of the explosion, SB overseas have shifted their focus to support the city’s most vulnerable with their urgent needs - including Lebanese residents. Their work is incredible and invaluable, and this podcast episode is in support of them. To donate:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/wwtsupportbeirut

Beirut will never be the same again, and everyone there will carry the events of the 4th August, 2020 with them forever. They will make it through this but right now they need not just out empathy, but our action. Most of us are not able to be there digging through the rubble, but can can support those that are.

For anyone who has never been to Beirut, or doesn’t know anyone there, it’s natural that the events of this last week might feel far away. Thank you for being here and opening your hearts and your minds to these important voices and to Beirut and it’s people. They need us right now.

To support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an extra special bonus episode in which I ask some of my amazing previous podcast guests - 'What does Freedom mean to you?'

As we come to the end of Season 5, it felt good to touch base with a few old friends of the show, as well as to explore a theme I have been discussing with the team at Amnesty UK - human rights.

We all know we have rights, no matter where we come from, but not everyone (including myself) is super clear on what their human rights actually are.

@AmnestyUK have come up with a campaign called #KnowYourFreedoms, to help raise awareness about the four essential freedoms that belong to all of us. As part of this campaign I have put together a very special bonus episode of the podcast to explore the concept of freedom and what it actually means.

The freedom to be whoever you were born to be is a fundamental human right <3

#CreativeCommission #FreedomToImagine

To support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.