Faces of hope in the crowd

Date: 29/09/05

Thousands of children flee war, famine and persecution to make a new life in Europe. A Brussels exhibition by Irish writer Penny Rae and Belgian photographer Carl Cordonnier brings a human face to the young people behind the statistics, writes Will Bland

In 2004, thousands of children fled from wars and dictators to start a new life in the European Union. Many of these children will have to wait until they are 18 in order to find out whether they can stay for good in their adopted countries. By this time they will already feel part of European society. A new exhibition at le Petit Château, Belgium's largest reception centre, conveys the uncertainty and isolation felt by these young asylum-seekers in waiting.

Penny Rae, an Irish writer, and Carl Cordonnier, a Belgian photographer, spent three years visiting reception centres for asylum-seekers in cities across Europe. During this time they collected personal testimonies and captured images of young people who hoped to make Europe their home.

Some of their subjects were born in Europe and will never be asked to justify their nationality, since most member states grant citizenship or residence-permits to those born on their soil. Others will have to fill in forms and undergo stressful immigration interviews before they can call themselves European.

Cordonnier said that the children that they met came to regard him as a father and Rae as their mother. Their work is powerful because of the trust that the subjects put in the photographer and writer. Visitors to le Petit Château share in the intimacy that Cordonnier and Rae developed with the teenagers. The project is also recorded in a book, published by the British Council and the European Economic and Social Committee.

"I wanted the visitors to imagine meeting all these young people in the street, eager to hear from each of them," explains Lucile Bertand the exhibition's curator.

One of the young people with a story to tell is Alpha Bah from Sierra Leone. He was one of the teenagers who inspired Penny Rae when she first met him at le Petit Château.

The children that Rae interviewed express themselves in simple and sincere language. Alpha's words are particularly eloquent: "The police questioned me for many hours and asked me if I was seeking asylum, but I didn't know what asylum was. I just knew I had to leave my country."

But this project is not just about spreading emotion and making people reflect. The pair hope that the exhibition will help encourage lawmakers across Europe to review the way they deal with asylum applications from children. In particular, Rae and Cordonnier hope that people who visit the exhibition will realise the problems that face these children, who are no longer minors.

Alpha arrived in Belgium during the summer of 2001, spent nine months on an intensive Dutch course and then went on to become a popular and enthusiastic graphic design student at secondary school. In May this year Alpha marked his 21st birthday but the anniversary is not necessarily a cause for celebration. In Belgium, this is the age at which his application for asylum must be completed.

Many of the children who flee from wars or dictatorships arrive in Europe long before their applications for asylum can be filed. In many member states, these are not completed until they are 18 or 21. By the time that they reach adulthood, Rae argues that asylum-seekers often find it difficult to recall the events that drove them to leave home when they were younger. This makes applying for asylum a stressful and unpredictable process. Until this process is complete, the new adults are ineligible for social benefits or employment. They must suspend their lives, pending a decision on whether they can stay for good in their adopted country.

Rae believes that immigration departments of EU countries should grant children citizenship when they arrive in Europe, to avoid them being stuck in limbo until they reach adulthood.

Jan Beddeleem, Alpha Bah's social worker, argues that the laws for asylum applications are unnecessarily complicated. Beddeleem suggests that non-governmental organisations, which traditionally defend the rights of asylum-seekers, may have shown no drive to reform these laws, since without them a large proportion of their work would be unnecessary.

The exhibition, entitled New Young Europeans, will run at le Petit Chateau, 27 Boulevard du 9e de Ligne until 13 November 2005. It is open on Thursday and Fridays from 2pm to 6pm and at weekends from 10am till 12pm and 2pm till 6pm.

• The European Parliament on 27 September voted in favour of a draft law setting minimum standards for dealing with asylum-seeker applications across the EU. MEPs adopted several amendments in favour of asylum-seekers. They insisted asylum-seekers should have the right of appeal if their application was refused and must be allowed to stay in the respective member state until any appeal procedure ended. MEPs also urged member states to use detention centres only as a last resort and rejected the concept of "super-safe countries", under which member states could refuse asylum to all applicants coming from countries deemed definitely safe.

Article looks at a new exhibition at le Petit Château, Belgium's largest reception centre for asylum-seekers, put together by Penny Rae, an Irish writer, and Carl Cordonnier, a Belgian photographer. They had spent three years visiting reception centres for asylum-seekers in cities across Europe. During this time they collected personal testimonies and captured images of young people who hoped to make Europe their home.