Community Responses to Asylum Accommodation in Folkestone

With the closure of Napier Barracks as an asylum accommodation site in September 2025, this project urgently documented the lived experiences of asylum seekers held there and the grassroots solidarity networks that grew in response. Working with youth participants, many with direct experience of displacement, the project produced a suite of outputs including stop-motion animation, youth-led short films, oral histories, and a booklet chronicling the creation of the Folkestone Drop-In Centre. These materials serve both as historical record and as active advocacy tools: the animation and booklet are being used to support funding applications to re-establish the Drop-In Centre, while the films feed into university teaching, activist networks, and public events. The project also invested in capacity building, training a new generation of scholar-activists with creative and political tools to engage in migration debates.

Applicant: Dr Zerrin Özlem Biner, Dept of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS

Grant type: Rapid Response Grant

Partner: Sally Hough, Yvonne Sherwood, and volunteer networks connected to the Folkestone Drop-In Centre

Location: Folkestone, Kent

Timeframe: 2026