Exploring, reflecting and empathising: What kinds of situations cause people to seek asylum? How might we feel in that situation?

Who is this? What’s happening?

Mo Farah arrived in Britain aged 8. He came with his father from Mogadishu, Somalia, fleeing the violence in Somalia. He knew three phrases in English: ‘Excuse me’, ‘Where’s the toilet?’ and ‘C’mon then’ – the latter phrase earned him a black eye on his first day in school! His teacher encouraged him to run.

Where do asylum seekers come from? Where do asylum seekers in the UK come from? The top ten countries of origin are as follows: Pakistan (4,783), Iran (3,155), Sri Lanka (2,128), Nigeria (1,428), Syria (1,289), Afghanistan (1,234), India (1,180), Albania (987), China (859) and Eritrea (764). (Source: UNHCR Asylum Trends 2012) UNHCR Asylum Trends 2012

Why do people seek asylum?

Adelina’s Story Adelina, 27, from Kosovo, refugee, then naturalized Adelina arrived in the European Union at the age of 10, when the political situation in Kosovo was deteriorating. Her father, a tribunal clerk in Gjilan, had come under intense political pressure in his job. Sensing that conflict was not far away, he left home to seek asylum. In his new host country, he is granted refugee status and finds work in a fish factory. Later, his wife and two daughters join him from Kosovo under a family reunification scheme. They also receive refugee status. Today Adelina is a student finishing her degree in psychology. She now has citizenship in her host country. In the portrait she returns to Kosovo to visit her family and her country for the first time in 17 years. She explains different emotions linked to this return, and tries to imagine what her life would have been like, if her family had not escaped the war.

Tell me your story….