The dispossessed
The safety net of support for refugees is wearing thin - thanks to Western governments. Sue Shaw explains why.

The cost of hospitality
Paddy Coulter on the burden which is too heavy for impoverished Malawi.

Common thread
Kurds and Palestinians are bound together by shared experiences. Palestinian Khalil Hindi reflects.

Lies and blind eyes
Hazhir Teimourian recalls the tragic history of his people - the Kurds.

The jealous state
The meaning of frontiers. Richard Swift gazes beyond the pale.

Scattered peoples - a visual impression

Running the gauntlet
'Three . two . one. Run.' Beatriz Johnston Hernandez documents the illegal immigrants who make the perilous journey across the US/Mexican border.

Dispossessed - The facts

Fortress Europe
Asylum-seekers face racist attacks and exploitation - or a return ticket to likely torture and death. Reports from around Europe by Kathy Vanovitch, Sue Shaw
and Beat Leuthardt.

Refugee in orbit
Tajudeen Abdulraheem interviews an invisible man.

Simply - the history of borders

The unending journey of Ryan Sulat
The biggest threat to many Filipinos comes from their own government. Sheila Coronel explains.

Mixed blood
Erica Simmons explores downtown Toronto and finds humour, strange dolls and vitality in the cultural melting pot.

Listening through your feet
From the Australian edition.

ACTION directory

There has been much excitement in the course of producing this magazine because it is the first with a new design – created by Alan in conjunction with our other designers Clive, Jim and Kate.

The process has been going on behind the scenes for months. It started with a meeting to decide how to update NI’s style and format. We batted suggestions backwards and forwards. Then off the designers went – to see how they could pull together our hotch-potch of ideas.

Within a couple of months they were back with a series of dummies or roughs, which they laid out ceremoniously on the central table in our office. We all gathered around to look. It was a tense moment as we scrutinized the various proposals which had culminated from hours of painstaking work. We had to choose. And it was not easy.

Some people liked one design, some another. And in the end we were thrown back on the kinds of questions which underpin the construction of any magazine – like: ‘What sort of publication does NI want to become?’ And, ‘Who do we think will read it?’

The answers were based partly on what you, our readers, have told us about yourselves in past surveys – and partly on our personal prejudices. Finally we chose a design.

Many smaller meetings followed with designers producing more refined versions. Each viewing elicited more suggestions until they must have felt it an impossible task to come up with something that everyone would approve of. But somehow they have done it. And we are all very proud of the end result.

In particular, I am delighted that the new design should appear in this issue because it helps to highlight the subject-matter. And never has it been more important to draw the world’s attention to the plight of the dispossessed.

People everywhere are waking up to the terrible dilemmas that refugees face. We recently witnessed Kurds dying on snow-covered mountains because no country would take them in; people fleeing floods in Bangladesh and famine victims perishing in the Sudan. Obviously some hard questions need to be asked. For instance, shouldn’t the world be doing something to help those who are uprooted and persecuted by their own governments? And why is provision for refugees diminishing when their numbers are increasing?

These questions have a particular resonance now. For this year marks the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Sadly, today, the minimum standards of treatment for refugees that it lays down seem to be more honoured in the breach than the observance.

For these reasons NI decided to do an issue on ‘the dispossessed’ to tie in with a series of films on the same subject produced by the International Broadcasting Trust for Channel 4 in the UK and likely to be screened elsewhere. By adding our voice to the growing number of concerned organizations that are campaigning on behalf of displaced people, we hope that eventually governments worldwide will start to reassess their attitudes. Who knows? We might even see some real change.

Letters
Letter from India
Updates
Reviews: plus Spartacus classic
Curiosities
Endpiece
Country profile: Grenada

FRONT COVER PHOTO: Collage by Jim Turner
using photos by John Reardon and
The Telegraph Colour Library
ONLINE MAG MAINTAINED BY SIMON LOFFLER