Refugees FAQ
Why don’t asylum seekers just seek refuge in a nearby country rather than travel to richer countries like the UK?
People usually do! 69% of refugees are hosted in neighbouring countries and 74% in low/middle income countries. A variety of factors may push the minority of asylum seekers further afield to countries like the UK and western Europe including local contacts, language familiarity, and colonial ties.
Why does it seem to be just young men that seek asylum in the UK?
Firstly, 43% of asylum seekers are women and children, whilst there is a small majority of men, this is greatly exaggerated. Secondly, the reason more men are seen crossing the channel is that such dangerous routes are usually first attempted by men and later joined by their families through official routes.
Aren’t many so-called asylum seekers simply economic migrants?
The vast majority of asylum applications in the UK are accepted in the initial decision (76% in 2022), thus demonstrating the majority of refugees in the UK hold a valid claim for refugee protection subject to a stringent criteria deeming they “must be unable to live safely in any part of their own country because they fear persecution there.
If their claims are valid, why don’t asylum seekers go through the proper channels and safe routes?
These ‘safe routes’ are increasingly limited and largely available to only 3 nationalities (Ukraine, Afghanistan, Hong Kong) unless a very specific criteria is met to get selected for a limited space. Even within these existing schemes, their implementation is often poor, for example the UK Resettlement Scheme, which began in 2021, is still yet to resettle half the amount of people they pledged for the first year! Even for the nationalities with their own UK scheme, there are huge failures to deliver safe routes, only 234 Afghans arrived in 2023 through the Afghan Citizens Resettlment Scheme, leaving almost 9000 Afghans forced to cross the channel over the same period.
Does Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees (CWR) only support Syrian refugees?
CWR supports and welcomes all refugees. The organisation was born from a Citizen’s UK training programme which prepares volunteers who want to lobby their local council to consider resettling more refugees, and gives them the tools to create a local welcome group. The training was particularly focused on the Syrian crisis in 2015 and the need for the UK to accept more Syrian refugees. Therefore, most of the work of CWR was been focused on Syrian refugees when CWR began, but we have supported any and all refugee families in the area, and welcomed asylum seekers to Cheltenham when the Home Office began accommodating asylum seekers here.
Where is the money coming from to fund the resettlement of Syrians?
The funds come from the Overseas Aid Budget through the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme (SVPRP). SVPRP is a government programme that aims to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees from refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey from September 2015 to May 2020.
More facts about Syrian refugee resettlement can be found here and here.
Are refugees allowed to work?
People who have been granted refugee status have permission to work and access public funds. However, the UK is taking ‘vulnerable people’ whom the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) has deemed to be in urgent need of resettlement. This means that some people will have difficulties working due to various factors such as ill health. Language is also a barrier to getting a job for many refugees who find themselves in the UK.
Asylum seekers (displaced people seeking refugee status) aren’t allowed to work or study, even though the asylum process can take many years to process. This is a dehumanising and cruel way to treat people, who often deeply struggle with being unable to plan or provide for a meaningful future. If you’d like to get involved in changing this, Right To Remain are campaigning on this issue.
Who chooses which families come, and how do they choose?
The UNHCR identifies families who meet the criteria which the Home Office has specified and liaises with the Home Office to carry out vetting checks. When housing becomes available somewhere, refugees are chosen from camps in the Middle East to come to the UK.
Isn’t there a shortage of housing in Britain?
No, there is a shortage of affordable housing in the UK. A report by the charity Shelter states:
There are more than 630,000 empty homes in England. 216,050 of these have been vacant for more than 6 months. The issue is affordable housing.
Is Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees a registered charity?
CWR have been working until 2021 as a constituted organisation of volunteers, but are now a charity! We will continue to run our operations on a shoestring and with volunteers for the moment, but we’re still adjusting to new processes and to working with a board of trustees to keep us accountable, so we’ll have to see what the future holds while also continuing to make sure families and individuals are supported in the way they most need.
How can I donate to Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees?
Donations towards our work make a massive difference - whether it’s helping to organise a day out to the seaside for families to play and relax while recovering from trauma, or making sure that kids have properly-fitting school shoes, your help is greatly appreciated.
However, funding is only one element of the difference you can make, and if you can help in everyday circumstances to discuss and raise awareness of refugee issues with your friends, family and community, it is very significant in terms of impact. There is a great deal of misinformation and prejudice about people coming to the UK to seek help after abuse from their own governments, and we believe it’s our obligation as decent people to provide that help.
We also recommend donating to GARAS (Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers), who oversee the legal resettlement process throughout Gloucestershire. They’re the first port of call for other refugees and asylum seekers in Gloucestershire who are not currently receiving any of the support which Syrian families entering through the SVPRP are.
Is there any guidance for volunteers working with CWR?
Helping at our community events means that Volunteers will socialise and get to know newly arriving families and individuals from a variety of backgrounds.
We are hoping to provide an environment to foster friendships, help people to feel at home in Cheltenham, and enjoy each other’s food and conversation.
However it is worth bearing in mind that the circumstances and experiences of the newly arriving families and people seeking asylum may be different, difficult and sometimes harrowing.
Therefore:
Ø Don’t probe, but your conversations with the refugee families and those seeking asylum may mean listening to distressing stories. If you need to talk these through, feel free to contact the CWR Core Team, in confidence.
Ø We know that our volunteers are kind and generous people but please think carefully about the consequences of requests made of you.
Be aware of your personal boundaries and be careful of creating expectations you may not be able to meet.
There are no expectations for volunteers to provide assistance beyond the volunteering role they sign up for.
Ø We would ask volunteers to bear in mind that one of our aims is to encourage independence and self-sufficiency – and not to take over and create co-dependency.
• If there is anything specific you are asked for or feel is needed to support someone, please raise it with the CWR Core Team who will be able to take any requests forward.
Ø We expect you to be sensitive to religious and cultural differences, but to nonetheless explain that certain activities and behaviours are legal and acceptable in this country (especially relating to the role of women and attitudes to LGBT+ people). Similarly, other behaviours (e.g. racist speech or behaviour, physical punishment) are illegal and unacceptable here.