Refugees Welcome sign on official building in the centre of Madrid

For many years while I was working, I was involved with an educational charity, which is still going strong, called Global Footsteps.

Through exchanges, travel, conferences and volunteering, young adults from many countries developed their understanding of global issues and became immersed in other cultures.  At an individual level, this broadened their minds and some long-lasting friendships developed.

On a wider level some really good projects were carried out.  A much-needed health centre was built in Kenya.  Classrooms were made secure and weatherproof.  Boreholes were dug and water tanks supplied in villages and schools where previously water had to be collected daily from the river or lake.

These days I can’t travel that far so I support others who can.  There is a wonderful charity called Hands Around the World and a friend of mine does amazing work with them.  I also sponsor a child through Compassion UK, a charity that another friend of mine is deeply involved in.

So, I know there are still lots of good things happening and lots of good people trying to improve the environment and enhance other people’s lives.

However, reading the daily news is heart-breaking and fills me with despair, especially the traumatic plight of refugees worldwide.  I can tolerate most things, but cruelty to children is just a step too far.  And, the US policy of taking children away from their parents is just intolerable.  The long-term consequences of the emotional and psychological damage this will cause to the children and their parents are dreadful to contemplate.  Imagine if you had your children forcibly removed from you just because you were homeless and hopeless!

I know there has always been a refugee problem, even Shakespeare wrote about it when he collaborated on the play about Sir Thomas More.  His character appealed to Englishmen to be compassionate to refugees, who were called strangers…

‘Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation.’

Today we do see it, daily, on our TV screens.

According to the Refugee Council there are over 65 million people around the globe who have had to flee their homes.  Can you even imagine how awful that would be?  It is like the entire population of the UK being displaced.  Millions of these people then have to flee their country and become the refugees we read about daily.  BUT IT COULD JUST AS EASILY BE US.

So as ‘Refugee Week’ ends I want to do my tiny bit to raise awareness of the top twenty facts as revealed by the Refugee Council and based on asylum statistics.

Hopefully they make interesting reading…

1. Last year, 362,376 people arrived in Europe via sea. Just under half were women and children.

2. While the pictures we may see on TV perhaps make us think that most refugees are coming to Europe it simply isn’t the case. The UN’s Refugee Agency estimates that nearly nine in ten of the world’s refugees are sheltered by developing countries.

3. Most refugees just move from one poor country to another. Uganda hosts a staggering 1 million refugees from South Sudan. In two weeks alone, Uganda offered refuge to more people than Britain did all year. 

4. Britain is not Europe’s top recipient of asylum applications. In 2016, Germany, Italy and France all received at least twice as many asylum applications as the UK. In Germany alone, 722,265 asylum applications were made.

5. Given the world is facing the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War, comparatively few people make it to Britain in their search for safety. Asylum applications in the UK actually decreased by 25% to 27,316 in the year ending June 2017.

It’s hardly surprising, given the barriers people face in reaching safe places to rebuild their lives.  Britain offers no asylum visa. In fact, there are very few, legal ways for refugees to safely escape their country and claim asylum in another country. The truth is, when war breaks out, countries like Britain often close down refugees’ legal escape routes. Refugees don’t place their lives in smugglers’ hands because they want to. They do it because they often have no other choice.

6. The lack of safe and legal routes for refugees to reach safety and claim asylum has deadly results. Already this year 2,410 men, women and children have lost their lives during their desperate attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Every death was a tragedy. Even those who make it have encountered many dangers in their journey, not just in their countries of origin. We hear horrific stories of kidnap, rape, imprisonment and torture in countries refugees are travelling through, including Libya.

7. Fewer women than men come to the UK in search of safety. In 2016, 25% of asylum claims in the UK were from women. Most people claiming asylum in the UK will have made a dangerous journey to get to safety; for many women this means risking sexual violence.

8. People who are seeking asylum make up a tiny proportion of new arrivals in Britain. Today’s statistics show that 588,000 people arrived in Britain in the last year– but just 27,316 of them were seeking refuge here.  Of course, not all people seeking asylum will be granted permission to stay in Britain.

9. World events often correlate directly with asylum applications; last year people were most likely to seek refuge here from the Middle East, desperate to escape on-going conflict and the murderous advance of ISIS. The top 3 countries of origin of people applying for asylum in Britain in the twelve months to June 2017 were: Iran, Pakistan and Iraq.

10. The British asylum system is extremely tough. Just 34% of initial decisions made in the year to June 2017 have been grants of protection (asylum or humanitarian protection). However, many refugees had to rely on the courts rather than the Government to provide them with the protection they need. The proportion of asylum appeals allowed over that time was 36%.

11. 594 children granted asylum whilst they were still under 18. A further 240 had to wait until they were over 18 to receive the news that they are safely protected here for five years. The top country of origin during that period was Afghanistan, followed by Eritrea. More unaccompanied children applied having fled Sudan than any other country, in the last quarter.

Unfortunately, being granted protection as a refugee means that those children will never be able to live with their parents. Shockingly, the UK deliberately prevents unaccompanied children from bringing their parents and siblings to live with them in safety.

12. In the twelve months up to June 2017, 48 children were locked up in immigration detention, despite a Government promise in 2010 to end the practice. 83% of the children who left detention were released, rendering their detention not only harmful but futile.

13. The UK Government has the power to detain people who are here seeking refuge. Today’s statistics show that in the last 12 months, 27,819 people were imprisoned in immigration detention centres; among them many people seeking asylum. 52% were released back into the community rendering their detention pointless. Some nationalities are nearly always released from detention; over 90% of Iranians detained were released during this time period begging the question why they are detained in the first place.

14. In contrast to most European countries the UK has no limit on the length of time someone can be detained. At the end of June, 271 people had been locked up for longer than 6 months, purely for immigration reasons.

15. The number of Syrians who have sought asylum in Britain since the conflict began in 2011 stands at just 10,858. That’s just 0.21% of Syria’s refugees. Like most of the world’s refugees, very few Syrians come to Britain in their search for safety.

16. The number of Syrian refugees resettled in Britain stands at 8,283 since the conflict began. In September 2015, the then Prime Minister David Cameron promised to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. That’s just 4,000 a year. There are over 4.8 million Syrian refugees.

17. In the year to June 2017, just 916 non-Syrian refugees were resettled in Britain via the Gateway Protection Programme run in conjunction with the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR).  Sadly, just 1% of the world’s refugees will ever be resettled which means many refugees face a long, uncertain wait to hear if they will ever be able to rebuild their lives in safety.

18. Shockingly, at the end of June 2017 10,033 people who had made asylum applications had been waiting for longer than six months for an initial decision. The number of people having to wait this long has risen by over 50% in the last year. 

19. At the end of June, 38,954 asylum seekers and their dependants were being supported by the Government. This figure has risen since 2012 but is still below the figure for end of 2003 when there were 80,123 asylum seekers being supported.  This does not mean asylum seekers live in luxury; far from it; people have no say in where they live and are often left to survive on around £5 a day

20. In the last three months, the UK has agreed to provide protection (refugee status or humanitarian protection) to 2,005 applicants and their dependants. Unfortunately, a large proportion of them will face homelessness and destitution as they struggle to secure an income and a rental property before they are evicted from Home Office provision

This last fact brings me back to my opening question.  Are we in the UK becoming less caring?

I believe as a country we are, and I believe the government is unwittingly helping to make it so.  ‘Austerity’ measures brought in by the government have impacted negatively on every aspect of ordinary people’s lives, and on society as a whole.  Whether it be the changes to funding or the regulations imposed on local councils, the support structures are beyond breaking point.  It is obvious to all that roads are falling apart and our rail services are inferior to most of Europe.  Hospitals and schools are struggling to cope and social services can no longer provide the level of support needed by vulnerable people.  Housing policy is not providing enough affordable homes so homelessness is on the rise.  The police are losing the battle against ‘small-time’ criminals who make neighbourhoods feel less safe and secure than they were in the past.  And charities are being surreptitiously turned into businesses to paper over the cracks. 

My aim is to write a mainly positive blog, but this week I find little to feel positive about.

My adult step daughter is deaf and has learning difficulties which make her very vulnerable.  She has lived in sheltered accommodation since 2001.  Here she has been safe and received the support she needs to lead her life as independently as possible.  But now that austerity measures have crippled the county’s care sector, her package has been removed.  Consequently, she, and the other girls she lives with, have been given notice to leave their supported accommodation, which we thought was a home for life. 

Having searched for alternative accommodation, we now see the extent of the problem.  There just isn’t any suitable and affordable one-bedroom accommodation to be had.  I have no idea how this will end but it is causing us deep anxiety and sleepless nights.  I know there are countless people worse off than us, but, it is hard to be positive today.