Refugees and the UK 1

Refugees and the UK: The Current Refugee Situation Worldwide

and the Challenges Faced by Refugees in the UK

By: Diego Molina Ochoa

University of Washington

September 4, 2016
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Table of Contents:

1. Introduction: Pg.3

2. Refugees at the Global Scale

a) Defining Refugees: Pg.4

b) Global Refugee Patterns: Pg.5

c) International Laws on Refugees: Pg.5-6

3. Refugees in the UK

a) History of Refugees in the UK: Pg.7

b) Current Refugee Situation in the UK: Pg.8-9

c) Refugees and the NHS: Pg.9-10

4. Concluding Statement: Pg. 11

5. Sources: Pg.12
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1. Introduction:

The past few years have seen the public awareness and discussion of the refugee crisis

rise to an unprecedented level. The humanitarian crisis of the Syrian civil war and the

simultaneous mass migration of Syrian refugees into Europe, has opened the question of

what role developed nations have in responding to such an emergency, as well as revealed

the ugly anti-immigrant sentiment that has been boiling underneath the surface. This

conundrum is particularly interesting with regards to the United Kingdom: a nation that

prides itself for progressive ideals such as Universal Health Care and diversity, the UK has

battled with a growing traditionalistic, nationalistic personality, notable in recent events

given the shocking, racially charged Brexit referendum.

This paper aims to accomplish two primary goals: firstly, it aims to clarify the concept of

refugees, as well as what international systems exist to define and handle the refugee crisis.

Secondly, it will focus on the role that the UK, as a significant global power, has in the

refugee crisis, taking into consideration its history and policies regarding refugees. This

will include a discussion on the relationship between the NHS and refugees, to bridge this

paper with the topics seen in the Dark Empire course. Through doing so, this paper hopes

to clear up misconceptions on refugees, and outline the successes and failures of the UKs

refugee policy, to better understand what must be done to handle the current refugee

emergency.
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2. Refugees at a global scale

a. Defining refugees

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (also known as the UN Refugee Agency) defines a

refugee as anyone who has fled their home country due to a viable fear of persecution

and/or death. This is important in order to understand who is protected under

international refugee laws: first of all, individuals fleeing conflict within their own country,

known as Internally Displaced People, are not protected by any international treaties, and

are in many cases more vulnerable than other types of refugees (UNHCR, 2016). Second,

the process by which the danger to a refugee’s life is determined varies from nation to

nation: the UN establishes guidelines that nations can follow, but ultimately has no power

over whether a nation actually takes in refugees.

It is also important to outline the concepts of asylum seeking and resettlement,

terms used frequently by the media. An asylum seeker is a refugee that is undergoing the

process of applying for the right to remain in a host nation and be protected by them: it is

only until a refugee’s asylum request is accepted that they can receive legal protection from

a host nation and find work, and should the asylum application fail, the refugee can be

deported back to their home country (Asylum Aid, 2016). For the sake of this paper, the

term “refugee” shall be used exclusively for refugees that have had their asylum application

accepted, to differentiate from current asylum seekers. Finally, the term resettlement

relates to the process by which a refugee is transferred to a new host nation: asylum

seekers cannot apply for resettlement until they are granted asylum (UNHCR, 2016). All of

the processes detailed above can take several years to complete.

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b) Global refugee patterns

As of 2015, there are 21.3 million refugees worldwide, with an additional 3.2 million

asylum seekers (UNHCR, 20 June 2016). To put that in perspective, that is more than 3

times the population of Washington worth of people fleeing conflict and persecution,

without even considering internally displaced people. Overall refugee numbers had

remained stable since 1996, however, the past 3 years have seen a major surge in new

cases, due to the Syrian civil war. The demographics of refugees is overwhelmingly from

Middle Eastern and African background, with 3 nations contributing more than half of all

refugees: Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia (UNHCR, 20 June 2016).

The nation that hosts the most refugees is Turkey, caring for approximately 2.5

million refugees as of 2015, followed by Pakistan with 1.6 million and Lebanon with 1.1

million. These refugees are a significant economic drain on these nations, and

overwhelmingly it is poor nations that must bear the burden of the refugee crisis. Wealthy

nations take in an exceptionally low number of refugees: in contrast with Turkey, the UK

has taken in only 123067 refugees. However, the number of asylum seekers in western

nations has increased in recent years, due to the rapid influx of Syrian refugees (UNHCR, 20

June 2016).

With regards to resettlement, in 2015 there were only 107100 successful

resettlement cases, with the USA accepting 2/3 of those cases (UNHCR, 20 June 2016).

c) International laws on Refugees

The primary international treaty regarding refugees is the UN 1951 Convention relating to

the Status of Refugees, along with the subsequent 1967 Protocol. Originally designed to

handle the European refugee situation post-WW2, the 1967 protocol expanded the
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Convention to outline laws regarding refugees on the global scale. It establishes multiple

clear-cut rights that refugees should have in their host countries, along with guidelines for

host nations and definitions on Refugees. This includes laws against the forced removal of a

refugee from the host nation, laws against discrimination, and basic expectations for the

aid refugees should receive. The Convention is built on the assumption that the refugee will

return to their home nation once it is deemed safe to return (UNHCR, 1967).

With regards to the EU, the most extensive structure by which its members handle

refugees and asylum seekers is the Common European Asylum System, a set of standards

that aims to ensure that the rights of refugees are maintained in the EU. However,

implementation of these standards is inconsistent, with almost all European nations having

different asylum procedures. Two standards, however, are commonly implemented: the

“Dutch policy”, which allows an EU nation to send an Asylum Seeker back to the first

country they entered the EU from, along with a policy that removes refugees Asylum

Seekers right to freely move through the Schengen Area (Open Initiative for Europe,

October 2015).
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3. Refugees in the UK:

a) History of Refugees in the UK

The UK has an extensive history of accepting refugees and offering asylum, with a parallel

history of intolerance towards incoming asylum seekers and migrants. Modern trends of

refugee policy can be traced to the 1880s Russian Jew pogroms, which led to more than

two hundred thousand Eastern European Jews to flee to the UK by the turn of the century.

In response, Parliament established the Aliens Act of 1905, the first UK policy designed

specifically to limit immigration and refugee influx, particularly those of Jewish identity

(Refugee Week, 2016).

While the Aliens Act was repealed by 1919, its sentiment would survive to the

present through British attitudes to refugees. Each wave of refugees would be met with

varying levels of hostile policies, be it harsh Visa requirements to full-blown mass

internment. Simultaneously, media and public protests underlined the intense racism

towards refugees: even if they were granted asylum, refugees would typically have to deal

with systemic racism, and would remain ostracized by British Society (Refugee Week,

2016.

Despite these challenges, not all of British policy was anti-immigrant in tone: in

1950, the UK government established the British Council for Aid to Refugees (BCAR), the

primary organization that would champion for refugee rights and ensure that refugees and

asylum seekers would receive the aid they needed. BCAR would eventually evolve into the

current Refugee Council, which handles asylum requests and advocates pro-refugee

policies to this day (Refugee Week, 2016).

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b) Current Refugee situation in the UK

As a signature to the UN Refugee Convention and Protocol, the UK is bound by

international law to protect the rights of refugees living within its borders. However, UK

policy is designed to make becoming a legal refugee as challenging as possible, thus the

effects of UK’s strict migration and refugee policies have made it into one of the most

difficult European nation to successfully apply for asylum to (UK Refugee Council, June

2016). This despite the fact that the UK has had very little increase in its refugee

population, even with the current refugee crisis, and despite that the UK hosts a

disproportionally lower number of refugees compared to nearby France and Germany

(UNHCR, 20 June 2016).

The harshness of UK refugee policy is best seen through its asylum application process:

First of all, a refugee cannot apply for asylum outside of the UK, which means that, for those

without proper documentation, they must pursue often risky options to enter the country

illegally. If caught, they face increased scrutiny in their asylum requests, if they are not

deported immediately. As of 2015, there were 45870 asylum seekers in the UK, and while

officially the screening and application process could take as little as 7 days, in truth the

entire ordeal can take multiple years. During this time, asylum seekers cannot search for

work, must apply for welfare support, and could possibly be interned for the duration of

their wait. And by the time a decision those come through, there is a good chance they are

denied asylum, as in 2015 almost 40% of all asylum requests were denied (Asylum Aid,

2016).

The difficulties for refugees do not end after their asylum application is complete: as of

2005, asylum seekers are granted only a 5 year period to stay in the UK if their application
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is accepted, after which they must go through another round of intensive applications.

Meanwhile, if a refugee is faced with criminal charges of any kind while in the UK, the UK

Border Agency, which handles all refugee applications and issues, has the power to revoke

their asylum status. Throughout all, refugees are faced with various levels of racism and

unequal treatment, which keeps them impoverished and on the fringes of society (Asylum

Aid, 2016).

Current changes to UK refugee policy have dealt less with improving the asylum system

and more with upgrading the resettlement process. From 2004 to 2014, the UK was

involved with the Gateway Protection Program, a program meant to establish a quota for

refugee resettlement in the UK. While by 2014 6187 refugees were resettled, this was

significantly below the quota previously established. Currently, the most famous

resettlement policy is the Vulnerable Person Relocation Scheme, set up with the goal of

resettling 20000 refugees, primarily of Syrian origin, by 2020, however, by March 2016,

only 1602 refugees have actually been resettled (Gower, M. June 10, 2016).

c) Refugees and the NHS

Theoretically, under the NHS policies, any refugee, and even asylum seekers, can have

access to primary healthcare, while asylum seekers can even receive free prescription

medication. However, the truth is that access to healthcare is exceptionally more

complicated for refugees than your typical UK citizen.

One major issue is simply the communication barrier many refugees face: the UKs

poor interpreter and foreign language accommodations are a constant challenge for

refugees, as they are unable to properly voice their issues and needs to healthcare

providers. In many cases, refugees don’t get the medical attention they need simply
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because they are unaware of what healthcare rights they have under the NHS. The language

barrier also limits refugee choice of clinics and hospitals, and often, the most conveniently

located healthcare facility cannot handle their language needs (Haroon, J. 2008).

From a more physiological angle, refugees also struggle with the fact that many

healthcare providers in the UK are not properly trained to handle the medical needs

specific to refugees. Refugees are affected by health problems that can differ greatly from

those of regular UK citizens, either due to their ethnic or racial background or because of

traumatic experiences faced while fleeing conflict. PTSD, untreated chronic disease, stress

and the effects of traumatic injury and torture are ailments that are significantly more

prominent in refugees, ailments UK healthcare providers are often unprepared to handle.

This also includes the cultural differences that arise with regards to expression and

diagnosis of mental illness (Haroon, J. 2008).

Finally, there is a significant issue in the fact that refugees, but more often asylum

seekers, often lack appropriate UK identification, and are typically in an unstable housing

situation. These 2 facts can serve as additional barriers for access to healthcare (Haroon J.

2008).

It is important to notice that most of the above challenges that refugees face are

exceptionally similar to the issues that most migrants and minorities in the UK also must

deal with. This underlines an important point: refugees do not open up novel problems in

the NHS, but rather highlight the pre-existing faults the NHS has in handling migrants and

minorities. Should the NHS become more accessible to migrants and minorities in general,

many of the problems faced by refugees would simultaneously be fixed.

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4. Concluding Statement

The UK, as one of the world’s wealthiest nations and an ever-present world power, has

the resources and capability to significantly alleviate the current refugee crisis, and serve

as an example for the international communities response to displaced people worldwide.

The information shown in this research paper, unfortunately, shows the complete opposite:

it shows a nation that stands firmly against the idea of asylum, that instead of breaking

down barriers in the face of a refugee crisis, has erected thicker and taller walls. The root

causes for this anti-refugee stance, ever simmering nationalism and racism, are complex

and deserve extensive research on their own part, however, this paper can confidently

conclude that the UK has failed in creating an effective, welcoming asylum system to

protect refugees and asylum seekers. Applying for asylum in the UK is grueling and unjust

for the thousands of people fleeing death and persecution, and meanwhile, the refugees

already in the UK struggle to acquire the proper healthcare they deserve.

The UK needs to reform its refugee system dramatically, as well as improve education

and knowledge on refugees, to ensure that its population does not view refugees as threats

or enemies. Given the standing of UK as a global power, all of this is entirely within the UKs

capabilities as a nation to accomplish. However, the future does not look too bright for

refugees in the UK, with a rise in hardline nationalism and the recent Brexit vote promising

to instill further anti-refugee sentiment. The UK is walking down a dangerous road in its

fate as a world power, one were refugees are only one of the many victims that are at risk

should it continue.
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5. Works Cited

Asylum Aid. (2016) The Asylum Process Made Simple. Asylum Aid. Retrieved from
http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/the-asylum-process-made-simple/

Gower, M. (June 10, 2016). Syrian Refugees and the UK Response, Commons Briefing
Papers, Retrieved from http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/Research
Briefing/Summary/SN06805

Haroon, J. (2008). The Health Needs of Asylum Seekers, Briefing Statement, Faculty
of Public Health, Retrieved from http://www.fph.org.uk/uploads/bs_aslym_
seeker_health.pdf

Open Society Initiative for Europe (October 2015), Understanding Migration and
Asylum in the European Union, Open Society Foundations,

Refugee Week (2016). The Heritange and Contributions of Refugees to the UK – A

Credit to the Nation. Refugee Week, Retrieved from http://refugeeweek.
org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/HistoryofContributions.pdf

UK Refugee Council (June 2016). The UK’s role in the international refugee
protection system, UK Refugee Council, Retrieved from
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0003/8056/The_UK_s_Role_in_the_inter
national_refugee_protection_system_Jun_2016.pdf

UNHCR (1967), Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, UNHCR,
Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/uk/3b66c2aa10

UNHCR (20 June 2016), Global Trends Forced Displacement in 2015, UNHCR,
Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/uk/statistics/unhcrstats
/576408cd7/unhcr-global-trends-2015.html

UNHCR (2016), What is a Refugee, UNHCR, Retrieved from http://www.unrefugees

.org/what-is-a-refugee/