Real-life struggles of asylum seekers in focus thanks to student’s project

THE difficulty and uncertainty of life for Cardiff asylum seekers has been documented in a photography exhibition currently on display.

An American documentary photography student spent months documenting the lives of people at Oasis in Splott, one of the most popular asylum seeker community centres. Application Pending aims to show the humanity of people waiting in the asylum process and the difficulties they can face.

Mary Perez, 21, from Virginia in the US, said: “I worked at Oasis for a couple of months, and that’s when I had the idea for the project.

“Then I got to know the faces and the stories of the asylum seekers there, and I realised I was hearing a lot of the same stories. I wanted to show what they do on a daily basis in the community centre, in a way where the photographs captured something that was not quite right in a slightly humorous way.

“A lot of the time images about the subject can be quite dark, so I wanted to show it in a different light.”

She added: “A lot of people can fall into the cracks of the system and struggle to get out.”

Oasis on Splott Road provides support including language classes and cookery sessions, helping people from Iran and Iraq to Sudan and Mali integrate into the Cardiff community.

Mary, who is a student at the University of South Wales, said: “Oasis is a community centre, and you do feel that when you walk in.

“But you can feel the stress and people trying to find some help, too.

“It can be a slightly difficult environment to work in. But there’s a feeling of community underneath it all.”