Five essential facts you need to know about refugees

Across the world, villages, towns and cities are discussing the refugee crisis every day. Here are the five essential facts you need to know.

1. The word ‘refugee’ has a special meaning and history.

What’s the difference between an immigrant, an asylum seeker and a refugee?

Often these words are rolled in together. But they don’t mean the same thing.

An immigrant or migrant has deliberately moved to a new country. It was their choice. There may be lots of reason why. Maybe for love, for work or just for a change of scene.

On the other hand, a refugee has left their home country suddenly. They leave because they are faced with persecution and lack any protection.

The 1951 refugee convention says that a refugee is someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, has left their home country.”

It’s entirely legal under these circumstances to escape and find safety in another country, however you get there.

While your case is being reviewed in your host country you are called an ‘asylum seeker’.

The authorities then decide what your legal status should be, such as confirming you as a refugee.

2. Today’s refugees are breaking records.

In 2015, the number of people forced to leave their homes through conflict and persecution passed 60 million for the first time.

In fact, 24 people had to flee their homes to seek protection every 60 seconds in 2015. What a terrible number.

Of those 60 million people, 45 million stayed within their home country as internally displaced people.

More than half of refugees came from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. The five-year conflict in Syria has swelled recent figures.

3. Most refugees don’t end up in Europe, let alone the UK.

Developing countries host four in five of the world’s refugees.

Pakistan, Ethiopia, Turkey and Lebanon are each home to more than a million refugees. Staggering when you think each country hosts a comparable number of refugees to the whole of Europe.

Less than one per cent of the world’s refugees live here in the UK.

4. Europe has a long history of migration. But the current European refugee crisis is something new.

In 2015, over one million people came to Europe to seek refuge.

Refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan form the vast majority of people seeking asylum.  Though there is also a large contingent of people from African and Balkan countries.

Desperate people often pay a large amount of money for the chance to reach Europe. In many cases it’s a very dangerous journey.

The arrival of these people is not new. Migration in and out of Europe is a longstanding trend, but what is new is the scale of arrivals.

5. For those refugees who do make it to the UK, their lives can still be tough

The UK received only 38,878 applications for asylum in 2015. That might sound like a lot but it’s less than the population of Bath, Carlisle or Galway.

Just 39 per cent of asylum applications made during this year were granted at the initial stage. Many people are initially refused because it is difficult to provide the evidence needed to prove they are a refugee.

When they get here, many face an uphill battle to be reunited with their families. That’s because refused family reunion cases have risen to 40 per cent (up from 29 per cent in 2014).

Similarly, refugees are left destitute by bureaucratic delays with their claims. Without access to public funds, housing and legal employment, people are often exposed to homelessness, abuse and exploitation.

• The British Red Cross is the largest provider of refugee services in the UK. We helped over 9,000 destitute asylum seekers and refugees in 2015. We offer food parcels, clothing and small amounts of emergency cash. Want to help? Find out how to volunteer at your local refugee service.
• Stats are taken from the UNHCR mid-year trends report 2015.

Edited on Thursday 30 June 2016.