German filmmaker uncovers Gander’s history as ‘crossroads’ for refugees

As the world watches the refugee crisis unfold in the Middle East and Europe, its history as a crossroads for refugees is being rediscovered by one small city in Newfoundland.

Lukas Wagner, a German documentarian living in Vienna, recently visited Gander, a town of 11,000 in central Newfoundland, to learn more about its international airport’s history as an entry point for refugees coming to Canada from around the world.

From its opening in the 1930s into the 1990s, and including Gander’s place in 9/11 history, the town’s international airport was a frequent refuelling stop for transatlantic commercial and military flights. Thousands of refugees first claimed asylum in Gander, because it was their first stop in the country after leaving their own.

Wagner found out about Gander’s past as a global crossroads for air travel by chance. “I came over the topic when reading a German book, which was about a woman travelling in North America,” he told Yahoo Canada News. Her journey began in St. John’s, and she briefly mentioned passing through Gander and its history as a point of entry for east German refugees.

“I found out that there was even more than the eastern German refugees
but also refugees from other countries – Cuba, Vietnam, other eastern
European,” Wagner says.

Perhaps the most famous of Gander’s refugees is the woman seen as a child in one of the most iconic photos of the Vietnam War. In 1992 Kim Phuc, seen fleeing a napalm attack in a Pulitzer-winning photograph taken by Nick Ut, claimed asylum with her husband in Gander while their plane was refuelling.

Many others came from around the world, however, often on flights going between Havana and Moscow. Eighty-seven passengers from a single flight from the former USSR claimed refugee status at Gander International Airport in 1992, for example–the town’s largest number of claimants from a single flight. In 1990 more than 2,100 refugee claimants, mostly Bulgarians, landed in Canada’s small Gander airport.

Reporting done on the influx of refugees into what was Canada’s poorest province reflects changing attitudes about refugees. In 1990, the Chicago Tribune referred to an “invasion of immigrants.” Today Newfoundland and Labrador wants to boost the number of refugees it can admit annually by 60 percent, CBC News reports, and the local Association for New Canadians is hosting information sessions for residents who want to know more about privately sponsoring refugees.

Wagner visited Newfoundland from earlier this month to do research and shoot footage for a documentary trailer, which he will pitch to production companies. While thinking about his angle for the documentary, Wagner was struck by the town’s slogan itself: Crossroads of the World. Being at a crossroad requires making a decision, Wagner says. “One of the strongest decisions, with the most impact, you can make is leaving your country, your friends, your family, everything,” he says.

The Gander airport’s long runways provided room for 42 planes forced to land there on September 11, 2001 when North American airspace was closed. But these days, large planes don’t usually need to stop for refuelling before or after crossing the ocean, and most of the international flights coming to or from Newfoundland land at the newer international airport in St. John’s. The drop in traffic at Gander International Airport means that its international terminal – considered an endangered place by Heritage Canada’s National Trust – that gave thousands of refugees their first view of Canada is threatened with destruction.

Far from major urban centres in North America, and tucked in a remote corner of the Atlantic, Gander is an ordinary town with a somewhat hidden history as a refuge for people coming to Canada from difficult circumstances. “The town itself is very normal. It’s not like living in the spirit of being a crossroads of something. It’s one thing I like about it,” Wagner says. “At the same time, you have all these stories and things happening there.”