A newspaper circulating in London, The New Londoners, produced by refugees and asylum seekers, provides a strong, alternative voice for these marginalised and often vilified communities.
The Refugee Media Action Group at the Migrants Resource Centre produced a tabloid-size 24-page newspaper for Refugee Week 2007.
Mimicking already existing free papers such as ‘London Lite’ and the ‘Metro’ the newspaper was slickly produced with quality pictures and interesting articles which provide information and analysis about issues that affect refugees and asylum seekers in London.
The launch issue of The New Londoners contained articles on the media coverage/hysteria on asylum issues, Strangers into Citizens campaign, party political differences on asylum, the housing crisis and destitution, personal accounts of the process of seeing asylum in the UK as well as a worldwide map of global human displacement, stories of refugee achievements and political interviews with Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone and Angelina Jolie.
During Refugee Week the newspapers were handed out at bus, train and underground stations as well as in the street and it is estimated that over 45’000 copies of the paper were distributed throughout the week. The paper has now become a web-based paper and blog and is to be produced on a quarterly basis.
Click here to see the front page of The New Londoners
