Behind the statistics are thousands of skilled and talented individuals

By Nick Scott-Flynn

When the British Red Cross first commissioned a survey into attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers we already knew there was a gap between perception and reality. We were pretty sure the results would show why Refugee Week, with the aim of celebrating and highlighting the positive impact refugees have on life in the UK, was so necessary.

But, despite working with refugees and asylum seekers every day, and hearing about the prejudice against them first hand, even we were shocked when we found that 95 per cent of people are unable to say to within 5,000 how many people apply for asylum in the UK each year. That almost a quarter of people think 100,000 or more people apply for asylum in the UK each year (the actual figure for 2008 was 25,670). And that people believe the UK is home to a quarter of the world’s asylum seekers.

But the more we looked at the figures, the more we realised that the numbers people carry with them in their heads – often vastly inaccurate guestimates – are a camouflage. A convenient way of hiding the individuality of the people they relate to. By referring to people simply in terms of numbers and labels is to deny them their humanity and ignore both their suffering and their contribution to society.

People like Eric in the video below, who escaped death threats in Rwanda to live on £10 per week in the UK. Destitute, the Red Cross provided Eric with food and clothing, and as his situation stabilised he began volunteering for us – distributing food and water to people affected by the Gloucester floods in 2007. He now works for the Red Cross full-time.

People like Aldijana, who together with her family fled for her life from the war in Bosnia when she was a teenager. Today she is a solicitor in Nottingham.

People like Titcha, who sought sanctuary in the UK after being forced to leave Zimbabwe. She now volunteers for the Red Cross, works in a nursing home for the elderly and is studying for a degree in social care. As she says herself, she didn’t want to leave Zimbabwe, but now she is in the UK, she wants to contribute to society.

The more we focus on the figures, the more we fall into the trap of dehumanising vulnerable individuals capable of extraordinary contributions. We must not allow the figures in people’s heads to obscure the humanitarian needs and contributions of individuals, especially given how distorted those notional figures have been shown to be.

We need to look beyond the numbers and concentrate on the individuals involved. We should be proud of the UK’s role offering refuge to people in desperate need of safety, and celebrate the skills, talents and contributions people seeking sanctuary bring to the UK.

Source: Oxfam

Nick Scott-Flynn is head of Refugee Services at the British Red Cross

Britons urged to try a simple act of kindness

By Emily Dugan|The Independent

Juliet Stevenson, Michael Palin and the Archbishop of Canterbury are among the first of thousands across Britain to put time aside for refugees as part of a campaign to acknowledge their contribution to the country.

A group of charities – including Refugee Action and the Red Cross – is encouraging the public to carry out one of 20 “simple acts” during Refugee Week, which starts tomorrow. From inviting a refugee for tea, to cooking a foreign dish or learning another language, authors, comedians and actors have helped to complete more than 2,000 acts already, with thousands more expected as the week goes on.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who undertook one of the simple acts by spreading the word about the concept of refuge, said: “Receiving refugees is not a matter of somebody signing papers in some remote office. It’s a matter of making friends with new neighbours; it’s a matter of turning strangers into a part of the community, and that’s done most just by treating them normally, as part of a fabric of the life of this country, this community.”

According to the most recent figures, there are just under 300,000 refugees living in the UK. Sandy Buchan, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “The Simple Acts campaign is all about people taking one or two small, easy actions that will make a world of difference to the lives of refugees in the UK.”

Refugee Week: Celebrities back campaign to make newcomers welcome with small gestures

Story time

Juliet Stevenson read a Nigerian story to children at Salusbury World – the country’s first centre for refugee children. “I’m appalled by the way asylum-seekers and refugees are treated by our asylum system,” she said. “It’s a cruel and unjust system that infringes basic human rights. I had lots of fun reading to the children at Salusbury World and sharing stories from different cultures. I would encourage anyone to take part in a simple act, no matter how big or small, and to be proud of Britain’s strong tradition of standing up for the rights of refugees.”

Tea with a refugee

Politician and activist Tony Benn had tea with Rose, a lawyer who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo and gained refugee status in the UK five years ago. Benn said: “When people talk about refugees they think of them as people with no qualifications, when actually many are enormously qualified.”

A national dish

Chef Fergus Henderson, famous for his use of offal at the St John restaurant he founded in London, spent an afternoon learning Eritrean dishes with a refugee called Lemlem. “Sharing food from different countries is one of the simplest ways to learn more about other cultures and identities,” Henderson said.

Learning a language

Writer, comedian and actor Michael Palin learnt a few words with Somali refugee Musa. “Communication is so important, and I know from my experiences in other countries that a few words, some play-acting, smiles and laughter can go a long way towards breaking down barriers.”

Picture protest

The comedian and writer Mark Thomas had his picture taken with Tendai (not his real name), a refugee from Zimbabwe. Thomas said: “The fear and antipathy towards asylum-seekers that we see at present is terrible. The scaremongering that often goes on is unwarranted and is completely un-British.”
This article appeared in The Independent Sunday 14 June 2009.

For more information go to www.simple acts.org.uk

The Importance of Refugee Week

By Mark Drinkwater|communitycare.co.uk

Showing a group of young volunteers from Africa the grimmer parts of  London gave Mark Drinkwater a new perspective on service planning

Asylum seekers and refugees receive a hostile press. It’s something that social workers will identify with. However, while social workers return to their comfy dwellings each night, “home” is still something of an aspiration for asylum seekers.

In one job, I worked with a number of homeless asylum seekers and a particularly unrewarding task was dealing with the Home Office department responsible for asylum seeker support. It was a daily trial as I dialled – and redialled – attempting to navigate the Kafkaesque phone system.

Some days I would be lucky enough to get through to someone; although momentary elation would soon give way to ennui as I realised the case worker seemed even more ground down than me by the inefficiencies of the system.

It was a truly soul-sapping process for me, but nothing compared with the experience of the individuals I was trying to help. For them, it further added to their feelings that the system was designed in a way to avoid helping them.

Poverty levels

I had hoped that in the intervening years that things might have improved. But last month a survey published by a coalition of refugee charities, the Asylum Support Partnership, revealed the extent of poverty for those seeking asylum. The report found that almost half of the visits to refugee charities are from people considered destitute. Such statistics are a sad indictment of a society that does not adequately support some of its neediest.

On a more positive note, I recently had the pleasure of taking a group of 20 young volunteers from a Voluntary Service Overseas scheme on a tour of south London. It was part of their induction week before starting three-month placements with local charities and statutory services.

These interns – mostly from African countries, including Sudan, Senegal and Uganda – seemed to be wondering why they had been posted to a “developed” country. My brief had been to show them some examples of deprivation.

On the tour, we stopped outside a vast, but empty, housing estate when one young person asked, “So, with all these empty flats, I guess you have no homeless people in the UK?”. It was hard trying to account for a policy of decanting residents, creating hundreds of empty homes and then waiting for an upturn in the market before bulldozing them and building replacement flats. As the questioner implied, these vacant properties could have housed the scores of homeless people we had passed earlier on our travels.

Fresh outlook

The questions posed by these young visitors made me realise that it’s useful having a fresh outlook. It made me think about whether the refugees and asylum seekers who reside in this country might also be able to contribute to the planning and delivery of our services.

Next Monday is the start of Refugee Week. It’s a time when towns and cities, from Cardiff to Carlisle, will be hosting cultural celebrations for displaced people. The aim is to create better awareness of the issues facing them.

In particular, I’m looking forward to visiting Refuge in Films, a three-day festival at the British Film Institute, organised by young refugee groups in London. It’s an opportunity to gain an insight into the experiences and positive contributions of refugees and asylum seekers. There, I hope to be joined, once more, by some of the VSO volunteers. This time, we should get a more positive perspective on cultural life in the UK.

● Refugee Week takes place from 15 to 21 June. See Refugee Week 2009 events

ARRIVED! Using the arts and creative approaches event

As part of the series of events set to take place during Refugee Week, Soft Touch Arts will be holding an event on Thursday 18 June 2009 at The Guildhall, Guildhall Lane in the city from 12:30 to 4:30pm. The event, dubbed ‘ARRIVED’, focuses on using the arts and creative approaches with young refugees, asylum seekers and other new arrivals. Representatives from refugee community organisations, agencies and public services, including schools are all invited.

The aim of the day is to show the value of using the arts and creative processes with young people who have recently arrived in the city, whatever their background.  Along with participants from some of Soft Touch’s recent projects they will be looking at:

·      What you can you get out of using a creative approach
·      What barriers there are to doing this
·      How we can collectively make future opportunities

Delegates will have an opportunity to see a selection of work made by young people: Streetdreamz:The Movie; the installation A Special Place, the Arrived!; Centre Project Days and Shoot! Magazines; and a photo exhibition. There will also be some creative activities to get people’s ideas and input – and a chance to have a go on a graffiti wall and at an animation station.

The format of the day will be:

12:30 – 1:30            Lunch (vegetarian/vegan/halal selection) and view artwork
1:30 – 16:30            Film, activities and discussion

The event celebrates and showcases the work Soft Touch have been doing over the last two years through their Creative Skillshare programme, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and the Arrived! Project, funded by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

To book a place email Helen Pearson at helen@soft-touch.org.uk
Tel 0116 270 2706

State your name, organisation, email address or other contact details.Closing date is Friday 12 June 2009.

Soft Touch works with groups of under-represented people to enable them to express themselves using a range of arts based media. Their projects focus on confidence building, community development, community consultations, performance, graphics, multi-media, street performances, music and drama.

More information on other events during Refugee Week is available here

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