Seeking refuge in London

The history of the UK, and that of modern nation states, is a history of migration. The first people to come to Britain were migrants who arrived between 950,000 and 700,000 years ago. This is when we also get the earliest evidence of human activity in London, from the Palaeolithic period.

Migration has always been a part of human experience. In fact, exile, flight and sanctuary caused by conflict or environmental disasters are reflected in varied ways in the founding myths of modern nations and religions. For example, forced migration is at the core of the three Abrahamic religions – from references to Jewish and Christian persecutions in the Old and New testaments, to Prophet Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina mentioned in the Quran.

Forced displacement also finds correspondences in pre-modern history, where the English word 'refugee' first emerges from the Huguenots réfugiés, the 17th-century French protestants who sought sanctuary in England. We have, in the museum’s collection, a pocket watch manufactured by the watchmaker David Lestourgeon, a Huguenot who migrated to London from Rouen around 1681.

However, it was after World War II that the term refugee began to be used to refer to the large number of people within Europe who were displaced as a consequence of the conflict. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, set out the criteria for claiming refugee status. Since then, it has been used to determine the international standards of protection.

It’s important to remember that there is no such thing as an “illegal” or “bogus” person seeking asylum. Under international law, anyone has the right to apply for asylum in any country that has signed the 1951 Convention, including Britain, and to remain there until the authorities have assessed their claim.

Today, a vast majority of people looking for international protection find asylum in regions neighbouring their countries, where they can spend years or even decades living in refugee camps.

Only a third of asylum seekers globally reach Europe. Having arrived, people are often housed in undignified migrant camps and detention centres waiting for their claims to be assessed. Despite political fearmongering, in 2022, the UK ranked only 19th among 27 European countries for number of asylum applications.

Over the last decades, Britain and several other European governments have implemented measures to deter individuals from seeking asylum. In April 2024, the EU introduced an even more restrictive Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, which replaced the Dublin Regulation going back to 1990.

In the UK, one such measure – the Rwanda asylum plan, first proposed in April 2022 – is designed to relocate asylum seekers to the east-central African country while their asylum claims are assessed. The initiative has been met by widespread protests in London and elsewhere.

The museum’s collection features many objects telling the story of how migrants have shaped London across history. In 1993, London Museum opened ‘The Peopling of London: Fifteen Thousand Years of Settlement from Overseas’, a ground-breaking exhibition complemented by a large-scale community engagement initiative that celebrated London’s rich migration history.

Our collection highlights the multiple challenges encountered by refugees as they arrived in London. For instance, a photograph by Charlie Phillips documents the arrival of a refugee family from Uganda at Heathrow Airport in 1972. Almost 28,500 Ugandan citizens of South Asian descent relocated to Britain, after President Idi Amin expelled them, giving them 90 days to leave.

People have journeyed to London with multiple stops in between. Abraham Lue (Lué) was born in Jamaica in 1939 but spent his childhood in Hong Kong, before leaving in 1957, aged 18, for the UK to seek international protection. Lué ended up studying mathematics at UCL and in an oral history interview with the museum, he recalls cultural and language difficulties, and even hostility experienced by the Chinese community in London.

An important landmark for the museum was the exhibition ‘Belonging: Voices of London’s Refugees’, October 2006 – February 2007. ‘Belonging’ was the output of the Refugee Communities History Project, which collected oral histories and objects from refugees living in London. The project was coordinated by the Evelyn Oldfield Unit, a refugee-led charitable organisation, in partnership with London Museum, London Metropolitan University and 15 refugee community organisations.

All through the years, the museum has also featured work from refugee artists, such as Rosemarie Marke, who came to London as a refugee from Sierra Leone and exhibited her work in the ‘People and Change’ (2011) display at London Museum Docklands. From 2010 to 2014, the museum also ran a programme for English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in partnership with Southwark College, which was attended by about 1,300 learners per year, including many asylum seekers and refugees.

Our collection also tells important stories of how Londoners have supported refugees resettling into the city, from providing assistance with basic needs and helping them find a job, to showing solidarity at particularly difficult times. For example, a flyer with a charitable appeal from the Inter-Church Aid and Refugee Service for families asked people to contribute “2/-” off their household weekly budget to give towards refugee families who were struggling or in need of medical aid.

Similarly, a leaflet from the Council for At-Risk Academics (formerly Council for Assisting Refugee Academics), established in 1933 at London South Bank University, is a testament to the ongoing support offered by the organisation to academics forced to leave their native countries due to war or persecution.

An especially challenging time was when the restrictions introduced in March 2020 during the first Covid-19 lockdown resulted in many unaccompanied minors claiming asylum being separated from their friends at school or college – lonely in unfamiliar surroundings. As a response, the charity Refugee Education UK launched the 'Connected Through Covid' project asking members of the public to send messages of solidarity to refugees in the shape of letters and postcards. Young refugees responded to these messages with voice notes reflecting their experiences of lockdown in London. These correspondences are now part of the museum’s collection.

These examples show how museums can actively contribute to contemporary debates about refugees’ rights, harnessing the power of objects to counter mainstream narratives of migration and to advocate for human rights across globe.

Domenico Sergi is Senior Research Lead (Curatorial) at London Museum and author of ‘Museums, Refugees and Communities’ (Routledge, 2021).