Dachil Sado

UNidentity

Being gathered in emergency shelters  decreases possibilities for asylum seekers to get to know  languages, to work and to be socially active. This is a main issue in the life of asylum seekers and often leads to deep depressions.

In November 2016 I started  a research on the development of  depressions and feelings of asylum seekers while they experience changes in their asylum procedure and receive different kind of documents. The  portraits I have been working on during three months are my interpretation of an expression of the documents, and of the personal changes of features they cause. I researched  the effects of four documents that Asylum seekers can get: the German passport (eventually), the so called “white paper” (for deportation), the Duldung and the so called “blue passport”. I started working on this process after collecting materials from Germans with migration background and from people who recently had to flee. 

Duldung: according to the definition of the German residence law, toleration is a "temporary suspension of deportation" of foreigners who should leave the country as soon as possible.

White paper: a letter from the BAMF to a person that has been denied any right to stay in Germany and is asked to leave the country voluntarily or otherwise will be deported.

Blue passport: a travel document issued to an asylum seeker by the state in which she/he resides, allowing her/him to travel outside that state and to return.

Paintings, 2017