Vukasin Nedeljkovic

b. 1975, Serbia

According to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country. A person who is seeking to be recognised as a refugee is an asylum-seeker.

In 2006 the number of asylum-seekers accommodated by the Reception and Integration Agency was 8,252, which is 19% of the population of Ireland. In 2006 there were approximately 4,700 people living in the Ballyhaunis area. It is currently estimated that there are at least 41 different nationalities represented in the town, and that the town’s population is 65% Irish nationals and 35% non-Irish nationals.

Asylum Seekers consists of nine videos about the life of asylum-seekers in Ballyhaunis. The individuals are been asked to talk about their backgrounds, culture, situation in the hostel, integration into Irish society, etc. People from Nigeria, Afghanistan, Serbia, Ethiopia, Iran, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Pakistan and Eritrea took part in the project. The title of each video is the name of the person who has been interviewed, followed by the reference number that has been given to every asylum-seeker in the country. As an asylum-seeker myself, I found that we are living in a ghetto, an open prison removed from the rest of society, without any possibilities of integrating into Irish society.

(Text: reading the city catalogue, 2009)