 During the coronavirus pandemic, the fear and uncertainty of confinement has been a brand new experience for many of us. But for people who've fled from persecution and war, detention and long periods of restricted movement are sadly all too familiar. COVID-19 arrived in the UK for moments when the UK government's hostile environment policies led to a growing hostility towards forced migrants. Since then, COVID has only exacerbated the challenges and inequalities that forced migrants face. Misinformation has fueled racism and the demonisation of migrants in the media. But also new forms of solidarity have emerged across social boundaries. In order to challenge this hostile environment, a group of open university researchers alongside artists and activists and international collaborators got together and we created a project called COVID Chronicles from the margins. We invited migrants from across the UK and indeed the world to make creative use of their smartphones during this period of confinement and to share their pandemic experiences through poems, songs, photography, videos, diaries and artworks. Our website, COVID Chronicles from the margins is the result. I think that really stood out was the level of inequality. Not in terms of like within the UK but also in terms of you know what is happening to other refugees like in other places versus the UK. It is different stories, different situations but mostly of them they are being connected by the fact they are suffering and this suffering came in the way from discrimination, inequalities but as well for the own sense of loss that the feelings were the same, despair, isolation, sense of loss, bereavement, a continuous bereavement during all the year and this project as a way of coping, as a way of expressing their emotions and their needs. This project has mainly taught me that you know art is not only about creating patterns and making beautiful things, it's also about spreading love and happiness and making others smile. All the children all over the world has been through a lot since last year. Our weekly sessions from this project, I think they provide an emotional outlet. It's lovely to see you know what these sessions can do and what such project can do for children, for the community. Working with COVID-19 Chronicles project as a researcher is great opportunity to work with amazing researchers and I learned a lot from them. I also had a chance to get in touch with many asylum seekers and refugees in the UK and all around the world. Personally I believe this project can make a change to show many documents to politicians and different departments relating to refugee and asylum seeking issue, to review their policy and do urgent act to make a change for better life for them. COVID Chronicles project gave me an opportunity to reach out to those who are normally voiceless in public. Often we address issues related to their material living conditions but the project was a great opportunity to discover their creativity and feelings. Some women explained how badly they wanted to be heard. To be able to share their story was like a therapy for most and they explained how relieved they felt. Working with the COVID Chronicles and collecting all these various narratives, stories, images has really revealed in detail the inequalities of a system which seems designed to demonise and isolate the asylum seeker. Having such a wealth of material enables us to see racism, casual cruelty. What we didn't anticipate I think is how having these materials online would stimulate contacts from much further afield. So I think that's been the surprise for me is that these global connections, they were there from the start but they were kind of, but now I think we're actually being contacted and that for me has made a difference to the whole idea of COVID-19.