Kirklees Together

When is Refugee Week?

Refugee Week is 17 – 23 June 2019 and there are celebratory events happening throughout June.

What is Refugee Week?

Refugee week is a UK wide programme of educational and informative events and activities to celebrate the ways refugees have enriched our culture and communities, for generations.

Refugee Week takes place every year around World Refugee Day on 20 June.

How can I get involved?

There are lots of different events taking place throughout June to celebrate Refugee Week.

Some of the events taking place across Kirklees are:

• Football for all Competition – Tues 18 June Leeds Rd Complex, Huddersfield
• How to be Lucky – is a play following the story of Anwar
• Great Conversation – Batley on 20 June
• A Celebration of Us – community event with music, dance and poetry – St Peters Church, Byram Street, Huddersfield on 22 June

• Pop up restaurant – Paddock Village Hall, Paddock, Huddersfield on 28 June

Click here to see more info and similar events taking place across Kirklees throughout June.

Interesting facts

Here’s a small selection of people you might not know were refugees, or children of refugees.

• Rita Ora – Singer, came to the UK as a refugee from Kosovo as baby

• Freddie Mercury – Lead singer of the band Queen, fled to England from Zanzibar in 1964

• Olivia Newton-John – Singer and actress, granddaughter of refugee Max Born

• Bob Marley – Famous musician, fled Jamaica to Miami after being shot during political violence

• Sir Montague Burton – Founded Burton retail, refugee from Lithuania

• Ben Elton – Comedian, grandson of a Czechoslovakian refugee

• Rachel Weisz – Actress, both parents are Jewish refugees

• Billy Wilder – Film director and writer, Jewish refugee

More information

Read more about the contributions of refugees to the UK.