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Refugees
A refugee, as defined under the 1951 UN Convention, is someone: who has a well founded fear of prosecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; is outside the country they belong to or normally reside in, and is unable or unwilling to return home due to fear of prosecution.
The UK has a responsibility to the rest of the world to help refugees as part of its membership of UN and as a signatory to the 1951 Convention.
Within the UK, a person currently applying for asylum is known as an asylum seeker. While asylum seekers may well be refugees, they are not officially known as a refugee until they have been granted leave to remain in the UK.
Time Together works with refugees who have the right to remain in the UK.
As a result of ignorance fuelled by media myths, misinformation and stereotypes, refugees are often perceived negatively in the UK. What few people understand is that refugees do not want to leave their country of origin but are forced into doing so.
Furthermore, because of the negative imagery that often clouds the true picture, refugees are discriminated against and find it difficult to integrate.
Asylum seekers
Asylum seekers are people who are asking for the right to remain in the UK but who have not been given refugee status. The vast majority for asylum seekers come from countries with well- documented instances of serious forms of persecution. In them last decade, the UK has seen high numbers of asylum applications from Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo, China, Iraq, Iran, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Turkey.