The Red Road flats, one of many socially deprived areas in the UK, are used to house those who have come to the UK to seek asylum. This project encompasses a year I spent photographing in Red Road.
It focuses on just some of the vulnerable asylum seekers who live there under the constant threat of detention or deportation. They are surrounded by bare walls and tower blocks. Many of the people live with serious mental health issues stemming from conflict or torture. Many asylum seekers can also be subjected to racial abuse and can be left waiting for years without any decision on their case. During this time mental health issues are often exasperated by other stringent conditions within the asylum system such as a legal ban on working.
Indefinite transition
People in Red Road live in an indefinite period of transition: unable to start the new lives, which they have so desperately sought; unable to return to their own countries and unable to move forward, they seem to exist on the fringes of society.
Studies have shown that many experience suicidal thoughts daily and organisations working with them have warned that mental illness is reaching epidemic levels within the asylum system.
Two of the Red Road buildings are scheduled for demolition in the coming months but the situation for many of the asylum seekers looks unlikely to improve. The government has pledged to cut annual migration from 200,000 to tens of thousands 2015 and looks likely to introduce tougher asylum legislation to do so. Who knows what the effect of this will be.
