Practise Hospitality To Strangers And Refugees [Podcast]

Practising hospitality to strangers and refugees is fraught with difficulty, it is not for the faint of heart. And as the number of the forcibly displaced people the world over surpasses a 100 million mark, it is becoming increasingly clear that troubles are the trials of friendship. For when a man is afflicted he will see who are his friends and who are but pretenders; a brother is born for adversity. Which is why it is fitting for us, in this age of geopolitical upheaval and climate change, to examine ourselves how we may most effectually be a friend to a stranger and a refugee.

2. No one is better qualified to assist our self-examination than Lord Alf Dubs, who was once both a stranger and a refugee in England.

3. Lord Dubs is a member of the British Parliament, in the House of Lords; and a Patron of the Refugee Council, a charitable organisation working with refugees seeking asylum in the UK.

4. Lord Dubs’ life commenced on 5 December 1932, in Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia; born to a secular Jewish father, who was involved in the cotton export business; and his mother, a gentle local girl, a qualified dietician. Alfred was one of 669 Czech-residents, mainly Jewish, children who were saved by a British stockbroker, Nicholas Winton, from the Nazis on the Kindertransport between March and September 1939.

5. Lord Dubs was sent to Czechoslovakia State Boarding Schools opened by the Czechoslovakia Government in exile in Britain – first to Maesfen Hall in Malpas, Cheshire, and then to Abernant, in Wales. Alf graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, with a singular ambition of becoming a local councillor.

6. Driven by a personal notion that “If evil men could do such terrible things, they could be countered by others doing something good” – which was underpinned by a desire to help strangers and refugees. Accordingly, Alf has enjoyed a long career in public life, achieving that particular goal: he has been a local councillor, a member of parliament, chair of the Fabian Society, chair of Liberty, a trustee of Action Aid, director of the Refugee Council and a trustee of the Immigration Advisory Service.

7. Lord Dubs was appointed a Labour working peer in 1994, and is an active and independent-minded member of the House of Lords, participating in well over the average number of debates, and occasionally voting against the party on issues such as assisted suicide and reform of the House of Lords. He is a longtime member of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group.

8. Reviewing his many achievements, Lord Dubs readily acknowledges that Britain has given him ‘enormous opportunities’, that he has been ‘incredibly lucky’ and benefited from opportunities that he had ‘not expected as a refugee child.’ It is in this respect as a former stranger and refugee that Lord Dubs has made, perhaps, his most significant contribution to the UK, namely, as the official spokesman for strangers and refugees. An instance is worth mentioning: In 2016, Lord Dubs moved an amendment that the UK should take-in unaccompanied child refugees from Europe, especially Calais and the Greek Islands. The Tory Government fought hard against this but eventually gave way because of the weight of public opinion – though they then arbitrarily put a cap on the numbers.

9.  Lord Dubs is currently a trustee of the Open University, and sits on the Advisory Board of The John Smith Memorial Trust, which was formed in 1996 to promote the ideals of democracy, social justice and good governance.

10.  In this Episode 007, we consider: How, in the most practical ways, we may practise hospitality to strangers and refugees in our midst?

11. Look up Episode 007 of Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa, and please subscribe to Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa podcast through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our guest thought leaders.

Recommended Reading:

1. If it’s Not Impossible: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton (Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2014). By Barbara Winton.

2. HOMELANDS: The History of a Friendship (Canongate Books Ltd, 2022). By Chitra Ramaswamy.

3. Get the Children Out! Unsung heroes of the Kindertransport (Lemon Soul Ltd; 1st edition (12 April 2022)). By Mike Levy.

4. By the Sea (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002). By Abdularazak Gurnah.

5. The Journey: From Killing Fields of Darfur to Royal Ascot (Mirror Books, 2020). By Abdul Musa and Ros Wynne-Jones.