Refugees from Bosnia (1990s)
Photo 1: Adisa Beaumont at the Cambridge Botanic Garden. She came as a refugee from Bosnia in the mid 1990s. (Photo source: Adisa Beaumont)
Photo 2: 355 Newmarket Road- The headquarters for BRAG – the organisation to support Bosnian refugees. (Photo source: Mike Levy)
Photo 3: Red Cross Shop – helped refugees from Bosnia. (Photo source: Mike Levy)
The civil war in former Yugoslavia created a humanitarian crisis. This was especially true for the Muslim community of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Around 200 refugees of this community managed to get to Cambridge in the mid-1990s. They were supported by the Bosnian Refugee Action Group (BRAG), which was made up of concerned local volunteers. Some Bosnians were housed in a large hostel in Chaucer Road, and a very active drop-in centre was opened on Newmarket Road. The local Red Cross played a large part in supporting the refugees, and its shop in Burleigh Street became a lifeline for the impoverished Bosnians.
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Below are memories of Cambridge residents, who arrived as children from war-torn Bosnia.
1. Country of origin and reason of refuge
" I was a product of a mixed marriage as well, Muslim father, Catholic mother… nobody believed it could happen the way it did. And then of course when it did, it was worse than anyone could ever have imagined. I think the stress of everything that happened most probably contributed to my father's early death."
" I remember, my dad had then arrived in Cambridge, in Edwin Stowe House on Chaucer Road, and I had the phone number for that. So, I was then talking to him from Bosnia. We would have conversations and chats, and I remember being scared of how much will this phone bill be. I was having these chats with him. And then we got out."
2. Arrival
" I remember, people getting off these buses and kissing the ground. You know, because they were on safe land. They'd escaped the torture."
"We had no passports, nothing, so we just turned up and that was all obviously organised. And then we ended up landing at Heathrow and then in Cambridge.
The hostel in Chaucer Road - I remember the layout, if I close my eyes. You walked in, a big lobby, and then there was like the communal living room, an office and bedrooms. Downstairs in the basement was a big kitchen. We had a chef, because you had to feed probably about 100 people."
" I think a few Bosnian people who'd already lived in England - when they saw the catastrophe that was unfolding, they tried to help. Some volunteering, some employed, because obviously there was no funding there to help us, and you know someone needed to do that job, so it might as well be someone who speaks the language of the people that are escaping."
3. Education, leisure and support
" In Chaucer Road, we had some kind of schooling for the kids. I think there were English classes for the adults.
I remember, we would take in the kids, whoever wanted to go would go on this minibus to Parkside Pool swimming sometimes. And I remember there was a pool table, we played pool sometimes, and a big garden, you know, football and stuff."
Support and social get togethers at the Red Cross charity shop in Burleigh Street, at Fisher Hall and the University Centre:
"One of the things was us [children] being loaded onto the minibus and taken to Burley Street to the charity shop, to the Red Cross charity shop and being told, you know, choose whatever you want and, and you don t have to pay for it because, you know, it’s to help you."
" Fisher Hall... that’s where we’d get together regularly… talk about how everyone was going to get through this dictatorship.
The University Centre… we’d go there for nice canteen meals on a Sunday… it was affordable and nice food and large enough for everyone."
4. Employment
" There was this lady called Janet and she was I think quite high up within the Red Cross, and she had a beautiful lovely old house with a huge garden and a ride-on lawnmower. I know, that my dad went and helped in the garden. She was welcoming them, giving them lunch and stuff. Some of these men were, you know, agricultural professionals, so she tried to find them something and they loved, I remember we all loved going there. She really welcomed us into her life."
5. Identity and feelings of inclusion and exclusion
" I carried a lot of embarrassment, because I noticed that we were poor, because we lived in this little council flat and I had friends, that lived off Grange Road in these huge mansions and I was always embarrassed. I never did bring friends back to the house. I had grown up being equal to my friends… and now I’m this poor Bosnian refugee. That stuck with me."
" Religion played a part in my life … I realized I’m different… people label you."
" I don't remember, you know, I can quite honestly say, that the only time anyone in my life has told me to F off and go back to, where I came from, was at secondary school. And you'll laugh, when I tell you that the person's surname, I mean he was English, probably born here, but his surname was Slavic."
" Now, I have this real sense of connection to this town, city… There is a real strong emotional bond."