20 simple acts for Refugee Week
The Simple Acts campaign lists 20 things any individual can do to change how refugees are perceived in Britain. These range from just changing your email signature to playing football with refugees.Changing my email was my first task and a chance to highlight the Refugee Week activities in Norwich to friends and colleagues.
At the start of Refugee Week I had the privilege of being invited to the Norwich launch event at City Hall and thus fulfilled the ‘Attend a Refugee Week event’ Simple Act. Some of the issues being raised by the refugees and asylum seekers present were troubling. One gentleman asked about the temporary housing he had been placed in, where one resident has mental health issues which make it very difficult for the rest of the residents. There were also a lot of people affected by financial issues – since the mid 1990s asylum seekers have been barred from working and instead receive at present around £35 a week to live on, or as little as £10 according to The Guardian.
This experience made me think about the meaning of ‘Refuge’, something which comprises another of the Simple Acts, along with finding out 5 facts about refugees. I opted for a simple Wikipedia definition, “a place or state of safety” with the corresponding facts which I lazily took from the Refugee Week website (with one exception):
- The UK hosts 2% of the world’s 10 million refugees.
- More than 1,100 medically qualified refugees are recorded on the British Medical Association’s database. It only costs £10,000 to prepare a refugee doctor to practise in the UK. It costs £250,000 to train a doctor from scratch.
- 11 refugees from the UK have won Nobel Prize for science
- There are more than 1,500 refugee teachers in England.
- In Norwich, 30 refugee families from the Netherlands settled under Elizabeth I. They were known for their love of canaries, a trend which has continued locally to this day albeit in a different form.
Next I found out ‘Who I Really Am’ by looking into my ancestors. Fortunately, in an era of TV programmes and whole websites devoted to family history as well as relatives who have spent hours putting this information together I’ve already got this sorted. My known ancestors were Irish and Indian; Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, Hindu, and Shi’a Muslim; and they lived in India, Ireland, Pakistan, Britain, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Joining a campaign for refugees, another of the Simple Acts, was also fairly simple. A friend of mine invited me to a Facebook group to ‘Save Refugee and Migrant Justice’, an NGO which provides legal assistance and advocacy to refugees. However, changes to the system of legal aid mean that the process is more bureaucratic and the legal aid is being delayed by months and potentially years. Having worked in organisations like this myself, I know how tight the budgets are and how this change could be fatal. So, I joined the Facebook Group, emailed the various Ministers and contacted Refugee and Migrant Justice to let them know that they have my support.
Finally as part of Refugee Week, with some facilitation from myself, a football match was organised with the Lord Mayor of Norwich participating. This combined two of the Simple Acts, playing football with a group of refugees and attending another event in Refugee Week. There are still 12 more Simple Acts I’ve yet to do, but the 8 so far have made me more aware of both the positive contributions and the issues still faced by refugees in Norwich and the rest of Britain.
Comment
