Asylum Speakers Podcast with Jaz O'Hara: Stories of Migration and Displacement

I LOVED recording this episode! My guest this week is the most requested guest on this podcast ever - Holly Penalvar, founder of Indigo Volunteers.  Holly is an absolute ray of sunshine and known in this sector, not just for her amazing work coordinating thousands of volunteers, but for always doing so with a smile on her face so I think you guys probably knew that she would bring some joy an...

In 2015, two young men called Carlito and Justin, hid inside the wheel well of a plane flying from Johannesburg in South Africa, to London. As the wheels of the plane were lowered for landing, Carlito fell from the sky, to his death on the roof of an office building in West London. Against all odds, his best friend Justin survived, and was found on the runway at Heathrow airport.  Today I spe...

I’m bringing you this special episode of The Worldwide Tribe in response to what has been happening in recent weeks in Israel and Palestine.  When I asked on social media what you wanted to hear about this topic , you said personal stories and also the history of the region so that’s what I’m bringing you. My guest today is the amazing Yara Eid… a 20-year-old from Gaza. Yara left Gaza 5 years...

Today’s Episode of the podcast brings you the stories of two incredible young women, Nujeen Mustafa and Marwa Mbayed. I was introduced to Nujeen and Marwa by Humanity and Inclusion, a charity who support people with disabilities, who are also affected by poverty, conflict and disaster. Unfortunately, this is the reality for both my guests today.  Nujeen was born with cerebral palsy. After lea...

This week I’m talking to Karina and Katie from an organisation called United Stateless - the only organisation in the United States of America to be advocating for stateless people.  This is another topic that I had no idea about before Karina and Katie opened my eyes to what it means to be stateless. Turns out there are around 200,000 people in America alone who fall into the category of sta...

This week’s episode of the Worldwide Tribe podcast is about something we all need to know about... The Kafala System. Kafala means sponsorship. It’s a system common across many Arab countries, where a citizen of that country can ‘sponsor’ someone from a poorer country to come and work for them.  There are around 400,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon under the Kafala System right now. Th...

You might remember that at the end of last summer, UK artist Banksy hit the news when he funded a new search and rescue boat in the Mediterranean. He painted it bright pink, with a girl in a life vest holding a heart-shaped safety buoy painted on the side, and it was named the Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist.  The Louise Michel has so far made one rescue mission, on which it b...

Do you think of refugee camps as only existing in countries far away? Today’s episode of The Worldwide Tribe podcast is about one right here in the UK: Napier Barracks. Up on a hill in the seaside town of Folkestone in Kent, lies a disused army barracks built in 1794. It’s red-brick buildings, surrounded by 10-ft fences topped with barbed wire, were actually due for demolition in 2021, until our H...

WELCOME BACK to Season 4 of the Worldwide Tribe Podcast! It's been a while, so this episode covers some of the big events of the last few months...from a trip to Beirut after the explosion, to a brand new brother! Spend some time with me, Jaz, sharing an update on lockdown, the recent Channel crossings, a new film, but most importantly...a new family member! Halfway through this episode I am joine...

My guest this week is Manwar Ali - a former radical Jihadist who is now a leading campaigner in Britain against violence and extremism, and works with the UK police and Home Office to prevent radicalisation in young people. Whilst studying in London in the late 1970’s, Manwar gradually became radicalised and was involved in radical Jihad for 15 years, recruiting others, fundraising and fighting fo...

The whole world was shocked by the footage of last week’s explosion in Beirut. It hardly looked real. But amongst the thousands of videos of the blast and the statistics being reported in the press internationally, are the hundreds of thousands of people who have been impacted by the tragedy.  Today you will hear from two of these people, Lebanese rapper and director at Beirut Records, Jeff B...

Today is the six year anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide.  If you don't know about the Yazidi people or what happened to them...this is the episode for you.  My guest this week is Farida Khalaf - a Yazidi girl from a village in Northern Iraq - 100km west of Mosul. The Yazidi religion is an ancient minority in predominantly muslim Iraq, and when ISIS seized the city of Mosul in June 2014,...

Prepare yourself for what is definitely one of the most amazing conversations that I’ve ever had. You might want to take notes during this episode, I felt like I did whilst Giles spoke these words to me. I wanted to remember every word that left his mouth... My guest this week is Giles Duley. Giles describes himself as an anti-war photographer, documenting humanity, love and connection in conflict...

It’s an absolute honour to have been able to interview this week’s guest... Waad Al-Kateab is a Syrian filmmaker, journalist, mother and director of the film For Sama. For anyone who hasn’t heard of this film, go and watch it immediately (it’s available for free online)...but be prepared. It’s one of the most emotional and impactful films I’ve ever seen. Waad and her family’s story is mind blowing...

Kicking off the season today I’m joined by a guest who’s name might be familiar to you. Rob Lawrie is an ex-soldier turned volunteer from the north of England who made international headlines when he was caught smuggling a 4 year old girl from the Calais Jungle refugee camp in France, across the border and into the UK. Rob’s actions saw him facing years in a French prison, with some branding him a...

This episode is another absolute treat. This week’s guest is ‘Hairdresser to the Homeless,’ Joshua Coombes. After years of living parallel lives working to destigmatize and unpick the stereotypes around some of the most marginalised of society , it’s been a long time coming that we record this episode together.  Josh started a hashtag and global movement called Do Something for Nothing after...

How do you self-isolate when you live in a refugee camp? How do you wash your hands with no running water? How do refugees even know about COVID-19 with no internet connection or phone signal? You lot told me what you wanted to hear next on the podcast, so here it is... COVID-19 in a refugee camp. And I thought we might as well start with the biggest one in the world, Kutupalong Camp in Cox’s Baza...

Sarah Mardini has been on my radar for years. Her and her sister Yusra, who we heard from in the last episode, became known for swimming their boat to safety from Turkey to Greece after fleeing Syria.  A year later, they were in Rio for the 2016 Olympics, where Yusra represented the refugee swimming team which was heavily documented by international press. But it was after that trip to Rio, t...

In today’s episode I talk to Yusra Mardini. We recorded this conversation in her flat in Hamburg, just before the world went into lockdown due to the Covid_19 pandemic. During this time of self-isolation, it seems more important than ever to amplify voices like Yusra’s. As a Syrian refugee, Yusra knows what it feels like not to have borders open to her or the freedom to travel, and to be separated...

In this episode I talk to Lord Alf Dubs.  Alf is my hero. A child refugee himself, he fled the Nazi’s in Prague in 1939 when he was 6. Over 80 years later he’s still fighting for the rights of child refugees today. We recorded this interview at the Refugee Solidarity Summit in London, on stage in front of an audience for the first time. I was pretty star struck and Alf did not disappoint. We discu...

From pet goats to beans on toast, this week I chat to the amazing Mo Omar, a Somali-born comedian who grew up in Wales. Mo arrived to the England as a refugee aged seven with his mother and six siblings. Today we talk about his integration into the UK and how he draws on those experiences for his stand-up routine.  Mo uses comedy to cover important themes such as migration, integration, relig...

This week’s guest has been a long time coming for me and our conversation did not disappoint. Gulwali Passarlay, author of The Lightless Sky, shares his story of escape from the Taliban in Afghanistan, to finding safety in the UK as a twelve year old child refugee.  He has some amazing tales to tell, from burning his face whilst hiding in the back of a lorry, to the moment he was reunited wit...

After 39 people were found dead inside a refrigerated lorry in Essex two weeks ago on the 23rd October, I was left with a lot of questions.  Why are people leaving Vietnam?  Why haven’t I met any Vietnamese people in refugee camps in Europe?  The only Vietnamese people I see work in nail bars...is this forced labour?  Today’s mind-blowing conversation with 21-year-old Vietnames...

Today we share the story of how The Worldwide Tribe began. I’m joined by my brother Nils who has been there with me every step of the way. From that first life-changing trip to Calais, to speaking at the UN Headquarters in New York less than a year later. He coached me through my nerves, unpicked my imposter syndrome and laughed through the negative comments. He was the stability I needed when my...

This week marks four years since my foster brother Mez made it to the UK hiding underneath the Eurotunnel train.  This episode we talk about his life in England, as although one journey might have ended the day he arrived, another one of integration and big learnings began.  We cover everything from his first day of school, his first time on a plane and his first opportunity to ‘chill’....