About the Conversation with Refugees

This is a rare opportunity to hear the life experiences of five people of different nationalities who have found sanctuary in Kent. You will have the opportunity to speak with these people in small groups, listening and posing your questions directly to them.

Reviewers have described these conversations as ‘brilliant’ and ‘really thought-provoking’. They remarked on the ‘tenacity and courage of the speakers’, their ‘positivity and determination’.

About the speakers

• E fled Iran after suffering religious and other persecution. He crossed the Channel in a small boat in 2019 and found himself housed with other asylum seekers in Napier Barracks, Folkestone, when Covid arrived in 2020. In 2022, he was granted asylum and Leave to Remain in the U.K.

• N left Afghanistan as a child after experiencing physical and mental trauma. His overland journey took several years. On arrival in the U.K. he initially lived in Kent and was supported by KRAN for his education. A few years ago when he turned 18, he was granted asylum and Leave to Remain in the U.K.

• K and his wife H were lecturers at Kabul University when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021. Due to K’s connections with British and American institutions, their lives were deemed to be at risk, and they were accepted for the U.K. government’s Resettlement scheme. In 2024 they arrived in the UK along with their children.

• M was a pro-democracy activist in Zimbabwe. He was repeatedly arrested and nearly killed before he fled his country in 2022. He is currently studying law and politics at the University of Kent.

• A was born into a family cattle herders in the Great Lakes area of Congo DRC, where his family experienced regular ethnic violence. He arrived in the UK in 2004 where he studied at the universities of Sussex and Kent. He has a PhD in international conflict analysis and is the author of “Not my Worst Day”.