About
Fast Facts: Refugees
- Modern law on refugees originally aimed to protect Europeans in the aftermath of World War Two.
- The 1951 Refugee Convention was very limited. It created legal protection for (mainly) European refugees that had suffered before 1951 (but not afterwards).
- Refugees from other continents and those persecuted after 1951 gained protection much later.
- In 1967 the United Nations expanded refugee status to residents of any country. 146 countries have agreed to protect refugees under these laws, including the UK.
- A refugee is someone who has made a successful claim for asylum.
- The word ‘refugee’ is often used to describe anyone who has fled their home. But it also has a precise legal meaning. A refugee is someone who has fled to another country to escape persecution and who has been given asylum.
- An asylum seeker has not yet received a decision.
- An ‘asylum seeker’ is someone who has fled to another country to escape persecution and exercised their legal right to apply for asylum.
- At the end of 2004, there were 9,236,521 refugees in the world; but just 289,054 were in the UK.
- Refugees are people recognised by the UK authorities as in need of a safe place to stay because of persecution in another country because of politics, religion, war, social group, or nationality. (Source: United Nations)
If you would like to learn more about the world's refugees, please visit some of the sites listed on our links page.
Fast Facts: The Project
- The Refugee Communities History Project covers refugees that arrived in the UK after 1951.
- Project fieldworkers are interviewing refugees about their experiences: their reasons for leaving their original home, family, sport, experiences on arriving and living in the UK, working life and identity.
- The project started in June 2004 after a successful funding bid.
- It is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the City Parochial Foundation, through the Trust for London.
- 15 refugee groups are taking part.
- Each refugee community sets up an exhibition about its interviewees. Each group has a fieldworker who helps select and then interviews refugees from that community.
- Over 160 interviews have been recorded.
- Each interview typically lasts between two and four hours. If needed, each one is translated into English. Both the sound recording and a written transcription of the interview is archived at the Museum of London.
