Page last updated 20/12/10
Many people in Northern Ireland have never met a refugee or person who is seeking asylum here but they may have been given misleading impressions by what they have read in newspapers and they do not know where to get answers to basic questions. The information included here is designed to help provide a better understanding of asylum in N Ireland.
…we recognize that it is becoming more and more difficult for people to cross borders to seek a place of refuge. Simply put, their story is often not believed and they are turned back. The coming among us of Jesus, as part of the human family, reminds us that no one is excluded from God’s family. Building up this family is our task as individuals Christians, as communities and as a country. Read in full
Q Who is an asylum seeker?
A A person who is looking for a safe place outside her/his own country. People seek asylum if they fear persecution in their own country because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, social group or political opinion.
Q What is our obligation to people seeking asylum?
A The UK signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to Refugees and has agreed to allow people to enter the country to apply for asylum here. They have a legal right to be here while their application is considered. Equally, anyone from this country may seek asylum in any other country that has signed the convention.
Q Who is a refugee?
A Someone who applies for asylum, and is successful in being granted refugee status. ‘Refugee’ is also sometimes used as a general term for people who have been displaced from their homes through persecution, civil unrest and war.
For more frequently asked questions about asylum see Who’s who? Who’s here?
For more detailed information read forced to flee 3rd edition published by the Refugee Action Group.
In June 2009 a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) report stated that 42 million people were uprooted from their homes throughout the world at that time, due to conflict and persecution, of which 16 million were refugees, or seeking asylum and 26 million people were internally displaced in their own countries. New countries of particular concern were Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia, with long-term problems originating from countries such as Columbia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia. By the end of 2009 there were 43.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, the highest number since the mid 1990s. Continue reading ‘Demographics’
Of the people who seek sanctuary in the UK, only a tiny number apply in Northern Ireland and this can make them particularly isolated and vulnerable, especially as some will have few people from their own ethnic and cultural backgrounds to help them through the experience. Applications are lodged with the Home Office and there are no separate officially published figures for those who apply in Northern Ireland. It is possible, however, to get some idea of the numbers from the applications for subsistence and accommodation here, although there may also be a small number of people who are able to look after themselves financially. Continue reading ‘Applications for asylum in N. Ireland’
