Everyone agrees that the issue of Channel crossings, with the dangerous and sometimes fatal journeys that they entail, needs to be addressed. But as the government turns to rhetoric and bluster and promises to “stop small boats”, misconceptions about why refugees are risking their lives to cross the Channel are born and reinforced. Many have been left wondering why refugees leave “safe” countries, such as France, to seek protection in the UK instead.
It’s important to first acknowledge the global context, which is that the vast majority of refugees – 72% – live in a neighbouring country to the one they have fled. Other European countries including France receive many more asylum applications than the UK. The people who do come to the UK to claim asylum represent a tiny proportion of refugees globally. Here are some of the factors that lead to them seeking protection here.
- Family and community. Seeking out family and community is a human impulse, and it is only natural for refugees to want to be reunited with their loved ones. With the UK’s restricted pathways to family reunion, however, refugee families torn apart by war are forced to face indefinite separation or make the desperate choice to risk their lives to be reunited.
- What is safe? A country that you consider “safe” may not feel safe to every individual. Refugees may have had bad experiences in a country that make them feel unsafe or unwelcome. Or they may have had difficulties accessing that country’s asylum system. Poor living conditions and lack of food, shelter and healthcare are also factors that push people to take even greater risks in their journey to safety.
One refugee, Veritasy, told us that he did not feel safe in France: “The police are very cruel…So from Calais we were thinking about moving to another safe place.” For some, crossing the Channel feels like their only hope; the only way for the nightmare to finally end: “It was psychologically not a logical decision, but I had no other choice. Either way I’ll die; either at sea, in France or by going back to Syria. That’s how I found myself in a boat going to England.”
- Language and familiarity. Refugees are forced to leave everything behind as they flee their homes; their only hope being the chance to rebuild their lives in a foreign country. Familiarity with some of the culture and language of the UK can at least make this process a little easier and allow refugees to feel more safe and at ease in a difficult and challenging situation. Familiarity may also come from historical links between the UK and a refugee’s country or from the UK’s reputation internationally as a safe and democratic country.
Farzad, who came to the UK from Iran, explained that language was an important reason for wanting to come to the UK: “I knew English before I came. My priority was the UK. I was in France for a while, but the language was a problem for me, I have studied English back in my country, I thought at my age, I’m 45, to start learning a language would take me a while.”
- Element of choice. Not all refugees get to choose the destination of their journey. People smugglers may dictate where refugees go and may even provide refugees with false information about how dangerous the journey across the Channel actually is.
The bottom line is that there is a myriad of reasons why someone might be willing to risk their lives in search for safety in the UK. And the reality is that most refugees do not travel through multiple safe countries in search for a new home. Nor do most of them end up in the UK. In fact,
the majorityOpens in a new window of refugees are hosted in countries that neighbour their countries of origin. Those who do take great risks to come to the UK do so because there is no better alternative – they are men, women and children fleeing war and oppression. The real problem is that we are not offering them safe routes to take to make a claim for asylum.
