Anywhere But Here: Britain’s Broken Asylum System - A Talk by Nicola Kelly

What is it like to arrive on our shores with nothing and be pushed to the margins of society?

Who stands to gain from an asylum system that is intentionally hostile?

Anywhere But Here is a powerful exposé of Britain’s broken asylum system and how it fails us all.

Each year tens of thousands of people risk their lives to cross the Channel in small boats hoping to find safety in Britain. Yet the very system designed to protect them has all but collapsed.

With unique and unparalleled access, award-winning journalist and former Home Office insider Nicola Kelly takes us behind the scenes of the small boats crisis for the first time.

We follow the under-resourced coastguard overseeing search and rescue operations in the Channel. The decision-makers hired from McDonald’s and Aldi to conduct ‘life and death’ asylum interviews. The immigration barristers securing last-minute reprieves for deportees who narrowly escaped death. And we step inside the Home Office corridors as ministers and advisors respond to emerging crises and scandals, from Windrush to the Rwanda plan.

At its heart are the stories of war-torn arrivals, lone teenagers and trafficked women attempting to settle in cities, towns and villages across the UK. We travel to meet them, exploring where they have fled from and why, and the response of local communities to their new neighbours.

Situated on the beaches and the ports, in the hotels, the courtrooms and the detention centres where the futures of those affected unfold, this is a searing investigation into one of the most urgent issues and shocking injustices of our time.

Nicola Kelly is an award-winning reporter focused on UK immigration and asylum. Her writing regularly appears in the Guardian, Observer, Independent, BBC News online and elsewhere. Before moving into journalism, she worked as a diplomat for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with postings in Brussels and Istanbul. She moved to the Home Office during the rollout of the hostile environment policy, where she worked in the department’s press office. Her reporting has seen her win the News Media Award at the Scottish Media Awards 2024, receiving a special mention at the One World Media Awards for International Journalist of the Year.

This talk is in-person only and won't be streamed or recorded. Doors to the Cathedral Library will open at 6.15pm.