Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards shortlist
We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for this year’s Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards.
The awards celebrate outstanding coverage of issues around forced migration and its impact on individuals and communities.
This year’s judging team includes experts from the National Union of Journalists, University of Glasgow/ UNESCO REILA, UNHCR, Pachedu and IMIX.
The shortlist spans five categories and represents a broad spectrum of coverage from news reports, features and interviews, to first-person pieces.
In an increasingly polarised world, accurate, responsible reporting on refugee and asylum issues has never been more important. We are delighted to honour the work of all the journalists in Scotland covering refugee and asylum issues with care and integrity.
Congratulations to all shortlistees! The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Glasgow on 11 June.
Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards 2025 shortlist
Independent media
- Milk Glasgow, Substack: The Asylum Seeker Diet; surviving, not thriving, on £5 a day.
- Billy Briggs, The Ferret: Torture charity asks governments to better protect women from violence
- Tabassum Niamat & Pinar Aksu, Greater Govanhill: ‘These are our Neighbours’: Three years on from Kenmure Street, what’s changed?
- Sadia Sikandar, Greater Govanhill: Facing hatred with hope
Features
- Rory MacNeish, The Glasgow Bell: The Chessmaster of Woodlands Road
- Kirsteen Paterson, Holyrood Magazine: Towers of Strength: How Ukrainian refugees found home in a Scottish town
- Lindsay Bruce, Press and Journal: From refugee to royal recognition, the remarkable story of Aberdeen professor Mirela Delibegovic
- Alasdair Ferguson, The National: Huss: How a queer Egyptian artist won right to stay in Scotland
News
- Diane Taylor, the Guardian: Syrian refugee says Home Office ‘breaking my heart’
- Xander Elliards, The National: Syrians in Scotland ‘scared and in limbo’
- Jane Bradley, Scotland on Sunday: 5,500 Ukrainians issued ‘use it or lose it’ letter over right to take refuge in Scotland
- Hamish Morrison, The National: English riots gave me ‘flashbacks’ to being hunted by trafficking gang
Broadcast
- Vidushi Tiwari, STV: Asylum seekers and refugees create art to explore mental health
- Vanessa Taaffe, STV: City council say they are struggling to cope with asylum housing
- Tara Fitzpatrick, STV: ‘Skills being wasted’: Calls to lift ban on work for asylum seekers
- Vanessa Taaffe, STV: ‘I felt like a nobody – refugees must be treated with more dignity’
Local media
- Alasdair Clark, The Courier: Syrian refugee family see Dundee future after violent end to Assad rule
- Donald Erskine, Glasgow Times: Visa rules leave Glasgow’s Ukrainian refugees ‘unemployable’
- Susan Lochrie, Greenock Telegraph: Afghan war hero now safe in Inverclyde helps refugees
- Rosemary Lowne, Press & Journal: The refugees making meals for Aberdonians to give back to the city that took them in
