Currently, the UK is home to around 1% of the worlds refugee population.
There are about 26.4 million refugees in the world at the moment. This number is huge and is quite impossible to imagine. It also is important to remember that behind this huge number are individual human beings with individual lives and families. One of the reasons some refugees chose to come to the UK is because they speak English. In a situation where you may have been forced to be removed from your home then it makes sense to seek asylum in a country where you can understand the language and communicate with people and find work.
About 42% of the world’s refugees are children. Often, the father of the family will move to a safe nation first and once his refugee claim is approved, he will bring his family. Sometimes families have to stay in appalling conditions in ‘refugee camps’ until they can travel to the UK to be reunited with their families.
There are few legal safe ways to travel to the UK if you are a refugee. So many criminal gangs promise to take people over the English Channel on rubber dinghies in unsafe conditions. You may have seen on the news that many of these boats get into trouble and people need rescued or they lose their lives. There are calls for the government to make a safe passage route to the UK to stop this from happening.
Refugees make a positive contribution to our society. Many are already qualified in areas like medicine and can be supported into work in the NHS. Children who come to schools as refugees help to bring diversity to schools and help refugee families to integrate into communities.
