On June 25th and 26th 2022, the first edition of Festival Passagens was organised.
It was a busy weekend filled with conversations and performances that enlightened us and that promoted discussions about the migration influx to Europe, the context of people on the move, the dangerous routes across the Mediterranean and the system in which migrant and refugee people in Portugal are welcomed and integrated.
We had a full house with the amazing Synik, Chalo Correia Trio, Mostafa Anwar Swapan Ensemble and LaBaq.
We gathered people who work with refugees or with policies that impact them and ended up discussing the following topics.
SEF extintion. What now?
With Joana Gorjão Henriques (Journalist, Público); Timóteo Macedo (Activist, NGO Solidariedade Imigrante); Acácio Pereira (President of SEF trade union).
Moderator: Filipe Doutel (lawyer)
Integration of Refugee Minors in Portugal.
With Mariana Pereira Coutinho (integration of minors, Lisbon); Carolina Cravo (integration of minors, Leiria), Inês Amaro (Department Director of the Social Development of the Social Security Institute).
Moderator: Afonso Queiró (HuBB- Humans Before Borders)
Pushing back hope. EU cruelty at its borders.
With Katy Fallon (Journalist, The Guardian); Dimitris Choulis (Lawyer, Human Rights Legal Project); Kathy James (humanitarian worker for MVI in Greece, Bosnia and Serbia).
Moderator: Miguel Duarte (HuBB- Humans Before Borders)
We watched a performance organised by Grupo AmiAfro in collaboration with Teatro Solim:
Serviçal até quando?
The performance tells Zeba’s story, a housekeeper and immigrant and it shows the impacto of capitalism, patriarchy and racism in her life. AMI-AFRO is an artistic current integrated in Teatro do Oprimido, that discusses the various sides of the opression faced by afrodescendent people.
The photography project “Through Our Eyes”, from “Still I Rise”, showed the daily life of refugees and asylum seekers in a camp in the island of Samos, Greece. It shows the challenging conditions, the emotional challenges and the dreams of the children trapped in the borders of Europe. You can read more about it here.
We also shared a short film that tells the story of Muhamad, a man who fled the war in Syria and who is currently living in Turkey, waiting for asylum in Europe. He has been rejected twice. You can watch the trailer here.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this edition of Festival Passagens and we hope to see you in the following years!