Tuesday 25 October, 18.30-20.00
The British Library Conference Centre
£8/£6/£5
http://www.bl.uk/events/migrant-landscapes
Explore the role of geography in the migration crises witnessed this year
So far in 2016, from the Mediterranean Sea to the deserts of the US–Mexico border, thousands of migrants and refugees have died while trying to reach their destinations. As never before, the natural barriers that lie between people fleeing poverty and violence, and their objectives, have become graveyards.
In this event, two specialists with experience of the US–Mexico deserts and the Mediterranean Sea respectively, discuss their work and the role of geography in the current migration crises.
Dr Robin Reineke is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Colibrí Center for Human Rights, based in Tucson, Arizona. Colibrí is a non-profit organisation working to end migrant death and related suffering along the US–Mexico border through forensic science, advocacy, and research.
Patrick Kingsley is the Guardian’s inaugural migration correspondent. Throughout 2015 he travelled to seventeen countries along the Mediterranean migrant trails, meeting hundreds of refugees making epic odysseys across deserts, seas and mountains to reach Europe. Published earlier this year, his book The New Odyssey tells the stories of those he encountered.
The event will be chaired by William Atkins, 2016 Eccles British Library Writer in Residence, whose book about the world’s deserts is due to be published by Faber in 2018.