In the media we hear about people- men, women, children and babies drowning as they make the perilous journey from Turkey to the Greek islands to escape the war in Syria. We hear how hundreds die from suffocation, attempting in desperation to find a better life, in the back of greedy, twisted money-grabbing drivers’ lorries. As students it is difficult to know what we can do to help, but that does not make the need any less urgent. Going to a talk called ‘Perspectives on the Refugee Crisis’ which was held in the Ansom Rooms on Sunday 29th of November, reminded me that we cannot close our eyes to the plight of our fellow human beings.
A speaker from the organisation, ‘Bristol Refugee Rights’, described how arduous and discriminatory the system for seeking asylum is in this country.
You are interrogated intensely in both a short and a long interview about horrendous events and with unnecessarily challenging questions about where you came from, including dates in history (I struggle to recall details in the history of Britain, when I am not in a stressful situation, let alone somewhere completely unknown fearing deportation to a place where I have been persecuted). Clearly this is an unjustified and biased system that assists the government’s agenda to reduce migration to this country by excluding those who we should be most willing to welcome.
Not only could relaying events that were so dire that they made you flee your country cause unimaginably terrifying flashbacks, the memories of people with post-traumatic stress disorder are likely to be patchy and hard to recall, as a GP who is part of the organisation The Haven, a practise especially for asylum seekers and refugees in Bristol, described. You don’t have to be at all intelligent to realise then, that the methods used are specifically in place to make it more difficult for asylum seekers.
The whole process for refugees seeking asylum in Great Britain is contrary to any notion of fairness. You receive only £36.60 a week on which to live, an isolating level of poverty in a country where you hoped you would be welcomed and the letter that asylum seekers receive reads, ‘You could be detained at any moment’, this being without the need for a proper judge to make the decision. Surely locking someone up, curtailing their freedom, without proper legal backing is a violation of human rights?
Indeed, according to Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ‘Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law’, and according to Article 7 ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination’. It would seem that detaining someone for days on end, without the decision of a judge is certainly contrary to Human Rights law- even if a clever lawyer could argue that it is not actively discriminatory because it is a clause in British law, it is certainly ‘incitement to such discrimination’.
We all therefore need to be writing letters and campaigning against this, and one thing which is not time-consuming, does not involve travelling and is free, that we students can do is sign petitions to end the unnecessary and discriminatory measures forced upon asylum seekers, such as those on 38 degrees and refugee-action.org to try and make this happen. Apart from this, we need to express our solidarity and continue to raise awareness about the troubles faced by fellow human beings.
studentperspective2016 