In response to last week’s tragic events in Essex, I’ve released Oksijan online.
The film is based on the true experience of a group of refugees trapped in a refrigerated lorry, trying to reach the UK in 2016. None of us on the team can believe that a similar horrific story could occur again, three years later.
We must end our inhumane policies towards our fellow human beings, so many of whom have been forced to flee their homes by violence and oppression. We should stand in solidarity with them, rather than condemn them to new horrors in their search for safety.
Many people have contacted me today to say the same thing. Mohammed Jawad, one of the brothers whose story Oksijan depicts, was one of them.
He wrote to say many people and the press had contacted him to ask what it was like to be trapped in a truck and running out of air. Our film is an effort to convey that experience.
Please take 19 minutes out of your day to watch the film here.
And if it helps people to understand and empathise just a little bit more with the 39 refugees who died yesterday in the back of a lorry, please share it far and wide.
For those who are moved to do something to help, please offer your support to the people doing incredible work at Help Refugees.