World Refugee Week  What is Refugee Week? Refugee week is a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events and activities that celebrates the contribution of refugees to the UK and promotes better understanding of why people seek sanctuary.

 Refugee Week started in 1998, as a direct reaction to hostility in the media and society in general, towards refugees and asylum seekers. An established part of the UK’s cultural calendar, Refugee Week is now one of the leading national initiatives working to counter this negative climate, defending the importance of sanctuary and the benefits it can bring to both refugees and host communities.  The ultimate aim is to create better understanding between different communities and to encourage successful integration, enabling refugees to live in safety and continue making a valuable contribution.

For the next slide (video) play up to 0.56 seconds and then from 4.17 until the end.

How many people in the UK are asylum seekers?  There are an estimated 60 million people, throughout the world, who have been forced to flee their homes. The numbers of protracted conflicts have increased. This has created more than 15 million refugees worldwide - but developing countries host over 80 per cent of people.  There are an estimated126,000 refugees living in the UK. That's just 0.19% of the total population (64.1 million people).

How many asylum seekers came to the UK in 2015?  The UK received 38,878 asylum applications (including dependents).  This was less than Germany (431,000), Sweden (163,000), and Hungary (163,000).  Just 45 per cent of cases were granted asylum and allowed to stay, once their cases had been fully concluded.  Many are initially refused, because it is difficult to provide the evidence needed to meet the strict criteria of a refugee.

Which countries do asylum seekers come from?  More than half of the world's refugees (60 per cent) came from just five countries: Numbers of people per country:  Syria: 4.2 million  Afghanistan: 2.6 million  Somalia: 1.1 million  Sudan: 744,000  South Sudan: 641,000

Busting the myths….

Asylum seeker  flees their homeland  arrives in another country, whichever way they can  makes themselves known to the authorities  submits an asylum application  has a legal right to stay in the country, while awaiting a decision.

The facts  Asylum Seekers survive on £5.27 per day.  From 10th August 2015, every asylum seeker receives £36.95 per week, despite personal circumstances.  Refused Asylum Seekers receive the same rate of support on an electronic payment card that restricts how the funds are spent. For example, you can not pay for travel with this card.  Asylum seekers cannot claim mainstream benefits.  In comparison, a single unemployed UK citizen would receive between £59.70 and £73.10, plus other benefits they may be eligible for.  Asylum seekers do not qualify for council housing tenancy or housing benefit.  Asylum seekers do not have permission to work in the UK.

Refugee  has proven to the authorities that they would be at risk if returned to their home country  has had their claim for asylum accepted by the government  can now stay here either long-term or indefinitely.

Highly qualified refugees are being ignored for jobs in their chosen professions, resulting in a "scandalous waste" of skills.  The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (Cara) says Britain is ignoring the potential of thousands of engineers, doctors and other workers.  It estimates that there are 1,500 doctors, dentists and other health workers living as refugees in Britain, but only a few employed in their chosen field.  Over 2000 refugees are highly skilled in engineering, science, education, healthcare and computing, but are not being employed at the same level as they were in their countries of origin e.g. a doctor working in the UK as a care assistant, a lawyer turned bus driver and a violinist and composer employed as a support worker.  The charity says it could cost as little as £1,000 to prepare a refugee doctor to practise in the UK, compared with £250,000 to train someone from scratch.

Refused asylum seeker  has been unable to prove that they would face persecution back home  has been denied protection by the authorities  must now leave the country, unless they wish to appeal the decision or there are legitimate reasons why they cannot yet return home.

Economic migrant  has moved to another country to work  could be legally or illegally resident, depending on how they entered the country  may or may not have a legal work permit.

The Red Cross offers practical support and advice to refugees and asylum seekers to help them settle in to a new environment. Young refugees tell their stories in a series of video diaries, produced by the British Red Cross for Refugee Week. Young refugees tell their stories in a series of video diaries produced by the British Red Cross for Refugee Week.

Please take the time to visit the Refugee week website, as well as the Red Cross’ official site and read some of the blogs and case studies found there.  youve-never-met/#more youve-never-met/#more-43480