"When they put me in detention, I remember walking through only one door at the detention center. I was in detention for three and a half years. When they let me out, I remember they walked me through SEVEN different DOORS, from my cell to the last door where they said, You are free. But how could I be free? I'm still not free.

Those seven doors said, you will not forget this. You will always feel like you are in detention." - Formerly detained man in the United Kingdom

SEVEN DOORS is a long-term documentary project by photographer Greg Constantine. The project explores how governments are increasingly using detention as a significant component of immigration and asylum policy and exposes the impact, trauma and human cost detention has on asylum seekers, refugees, stateless people and migrants around the world. 

Today, an unprecedented number of people worldwide have fled conflict, disaster, human rights abuse and poverty and have left their homes in search of safety, sanctuary and a better life. Simultaneously, the dialog and debate over issues of immigration and national security have grown more intertwined, intolerant and extreme. 

As a result, a record number of men, women and children are being apprehended and locked away for months or even years for non-violent, civil immigration offenses. Detained administratively as their cases are being heard, or as their asylum claims are being considered or as they await deportation, they are removed from society and languish in an ever expanding web of prison-like immigration detention centers. The psychological trauma and collateral damage detention has not only on the detained but also on family, friends and others is long-lasting and often paralyzing.

SEVEN DOORS aims to look beyond the physical architecture of immigration detention. It aims to share not only the darker personal stories of struggle but also the inspiring stories of survival from detention and the efforts being made to find alternatives and combat these unjust policies. Through these stories, the project hopes to expose the injustices and opaque and Kafkaesque policy structures governments put in place that fuel the detention of vulnerable non-citizens around the world. Most importantly, the project aims to explore how immigration detention affects human lives.

SEVEN DOORS is a multiple year project, spanning several different countries and regions: from Malaysia and Thailand to the United States, Mexico and Eastern Europe.  

Each chapter of the project will be released as an independently published, print-zine called the SEVEN DOORS Journal. The Journal can be ordered online (not inclusive of shipping). Copies of each issue will also be distributed to local and international organizations, educators, activists and others as a way to promote understanding and encourage discussion and debate. Each chapter will be published as an expanded version on 7doors.org, incorporating additional photographs, audio, text, graphics and multimedia. Plus much more...

Please contact Greg directly if you are interested in sharing this story - grconstantine@gmail.com

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