The Management Board of the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics (SECP) condemns the Russian attack on the sovereign state of Ukraine. We stand in solidarity with the people affected by this crisis, with the Ukrainian people, the people of its neighbouring countries and the Russian people who did not choose this war.

Everyone deserves peace be they Ukrainian, Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghan or Yemeni, or from Ethiopia, DR Congo, Sahel, Nigeria or Venezuela, or other protracted conflict zones. We stand with those suffering from the consequences of imperialist, military and capitalist interventions in sovereign nations, and with all those who face generations of devastation and poverty when the official fighting has ended and global mainstream media attention has turned away.

We are concerned over the risk of human trafficking of vulnerable persons and refugees in the Ukraine and its neighbouring countries. We call for equal and non-racist treatment of all migrants who are fleeing the attacks in Ukraine. We deplore the inability and/or unwillingness of the British government to respond quickly and adequately to this refugee crisis, and we demand a fair and equal treatment of all refugees who seek asylum in this country.

This Research Centre will continue to work and to collaborate, in order to contribute to critical investigation and offer new knowledge and practices for the creation of more socially just and sustainable societies.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948)