On 11 November 2020 the EMN National Contact Point for the Slovak Republic co-organized a film screening of the film One Way Ticket as part of the film festival One World. The film tells a story about a huge life change of refugees who were resettled from a refugee camp to the US. The online screening was watched by 203 spectators.
The film One Way Ticket follows the story of two friends whose hope for better life came true after 20 years spent in a refugee camp in Uganda. They leave for the US where a whole new world, people, language, food and weather await them.
The film is an account of their dreams and aspirations, and of the everyday struggles and alienation they experience in a foreign land. Their perceptions of a new life ahead meet with the reality and their story portrays how they manage to cope with it.
Watch the trailer: here
The film was presented within the framework of the Global Migration Film Festival.
Online discussion One way ticket, or what resettlement is and how it works
After the film screening Miroslava Pinková from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Zuzana Vatráľová from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) discussed the life in a refugee camp and especially the assistance to refugees through their resettlement to safe countries.
Miroslava Pinková stressed that nowadays there is about 26 million refugees while 85 % of them live in developing countries and two thirds of refugees live in the neighbouring countries. For instance, in the Kenyan refugee camp Dadaab there is almost half a million refugees and the camp has become a city in itself.
Zuzana Vatráľová pointed out that the best functioning refugee camps are those that are being run like a town. In a refugee camp in Jordan people can run a business in a limited way and they are in contact with surrounding towns and villages. This mode is closer to a normal life and thus people do better.
Between 11 November and 15 December 2020, the discussion was watched by 93 people all in all 127 times either live or from the archive.
In the discussion you will also learn:
• How many years on average refugees spend in refugee camps;
• Where the camps are situated;
• What role the resettlement to safe countries plays in the lives of refugees;
• What criteria refugees have to fulfill to be placed into a resettlement programme and whether they can choose the country of resettlement;
• Which countries accept the most refugees;
• How Slovakia got engaged in an effort to resettle 1 000 refugees;
• How many refugees there are in Slovakia and how they integrate into the society;
• Why Slovaks are afraid of refugees.
Watch the recording of the discussion One way ticket: what it is and how does resettlement work?