We are pleased to be hosting the event ‘Sanctuary, now and then: asylum, migrant rights and anti-deportation in Britain since the 1980s’, on Friday 7 November from 12:00-3:00pm in Manchester Central Library’s Performance Space.
Sanctuary movements have long been a part of the movement for migrant rights in Britain, but the meaning of sanctuary and the forms it has taken have varied dramatically. This event brings together scholars and practitioners of sanctuary, past and present, to discuss its history, trajectories, current forms, and possible futures in this country.
Our speakers are:
Stuart Crosthwaite, a migrant-rights campaigner, writer and organiser in Sheffield. He is currently Secretary of the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG).
Amy Grant, a historian of the UK sanctuary and anti-deportation movements, based at the University of East Anglia.
Rachel Humphris, a political sociologist at Queen Mary University of London. She is the author of ‘Making Sanctuary Cities: Migration, Citizenship and Urban Governance’ (2025).
Paul Weller, who has written extensively on the sanctuary movement and was involved in many sanctuary campaigns in the North West in the 1980s and 1990s.
Food will be provided by our friends at ‘The Little Sri Lankan’.
Tickets for the event are free and can be booked at https://SanctuaryNowAndThen.eventbrite.co.uk.
