Oxfam Education In the shoes of a Refugee: how does the law affect you? Outline

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1 In the shoes of a Refugee: how does the law affect you? Age range: 11 + Outline Time: minutes Oxfam s Stand as One campaign aims to change UK refugees lives for the better. In 2017 the campaign focuses on the UK rules which affect refugees rights to be together as a family, and how the rules could be changed for the better. Young people are invited to learn about these issues and then (if they wish), to send handwritten Stand as One postcards to their school s MP. This workshop prepares students to learn more about refugees before they take action. In this session young people examine real life case studies 1 and learn about some of the rules about refugee family reunification in the UK. They also explore their own and their peers opinions about the rules strictness and learn how Oxfam s Stand as One campaign seeks to change the law. Learning objectives Young people better understand some of the current UK immigration rules that prevent the families of UK refugees from being together, and consider how fair they are. Young people empathise with, and have a greater understanding of some of the challenges refugees face. Young people have an understanding of how UK immigration rules could change to allow more families to be together in the UK. Outcomes Young people feel knowledgeable enough and enthusiastic enough to support Oxfam s Stand as One campaign. Young people write to their MP to urge them to take positive action on the issue of Refugee Family Reunification. Key questions How do some of the UK s immigration rules keep families apart? How could current UK immigration rules be changed in order to help reunite more families? How do current UK immigration rules affect refugees lives? Resources Printed case studies one case study per student. Whiteboard for writing up students ideas. Scissors. Ability to show this video and this video. Postcards for your MP order them from John McLaverty at least one week before you need them jmclaverty@oxfam.org.uk 1 All case studies and factual information in this document have been taken from the Joint Agency Briefing Note Together Again: Reuniting refugee families in safety what the UK can do Page 1

2 Pre-session learning Although this session works as a stand-alone session we would we advise that the young people have seen the Stand as One presentation before-hand. Activity Instructions Activity 1 (4 minutes) Have you ever been lost? As a child most of us have had that sinking feeling when we can t see our parents in the supermarket or a busy street. Share with the group a time you felt lost / separated from family members. Ask young people as pairs to share similar stories with each other and describe how they felt. Ask one or two willing students to share their story with the whole group. Activity 2 (4 minutes) Introduction Introduce the issue to the group: Did you know that unaccompanied child refugees who arrive in the UK can t apply to have their parents come and live with them? So try to imagine. You are 15 years old. You have to leave your country it is not safe, there is a war and you fear for your life. You travel alone taking huge risks to find safety, maybe boarding an overcrowded boat. You finally arrive at a country of safety. One of the first things you want to do is to bring your parents over so that they can be safe with you too and help you to settle in this new country. But you are not allowed to. The new country says it will look after you (in the care system) but you cannot arrange to have your parents come join you. Now stop imagining. This is actually the reality for anyone under 18 who arrives in the UK alone as a refugee. And it s not just children separated from their parents; too many families are being torn apart in their desperate search for safety, and UK rules also make it harder for them to be reunited. Activity 3 (4 minutes) Video Case study of 2 Syrian refugees Show students this video 2 about two Syrian parents unable to reunite with their children who are over 18 due to UK law. Are the rules (described in the video) fair? How do you think the parents in the video, and their younger children feel? Explain that you will be looking further at what some of those rules are, and some more true stories about the people who are affected by them. 2 Page 2

3 Activity 4 (20-30 minutes) Role-Play Activity in the shoes of a refugee Give young people the case studies one per student. (New vocabulary: When a refugee sponsors a family member it means they are making an application to the UK government to bring a family member to the UK to join them). Allow young people some time to read their case study and ask if there is anything they don t understand. NB. You do not have to use all of the case studies. Select as many or as few as you need depending on time available. Ask young people to cut their case study along the dotted line and hand the question to their neighbour young people can now interview each other in character. You can ask the group to mingle and interview different members of the group so they become familiar with all the case studies. Give young people permission to imagine details not provided in the case study when playing the part of a character. You could ask brave volunteers to perform their role play for the whole group. If they are a bit shy, select one young person per case study to explain the scenario their character faced, how current UK rules are affecting them and the change Stand as One is proposing. Explain to the class that the case studies they ve been using are about real people. For example Nabil (case study 2) finally made his way safely to Scotland he was lucky enough to receive legal advice and was able to come to the UK. Activity 5 (3 minutes) Video Rafael Nadal stops match to reunite mother and child Ask the young people if they like tennis and if they can name any famous tennis players. Do they watch Wimbledon? Have they heard of Rafael Nadal? Show this video. 3 What happened in the video? Do you think it gets the Stand as One s campaign message across well or not? Why? Activity 6 (15 minutes) Postcard to MPs For this activity you need to order the Stand as One postcards at least one week in advance order them from John McLaverty jmclaverty@oxfam.org.uk. Think about how you d prefer to approach writing to your MP. Options A and B below. Option A: School wide postcard campaign: If you want to work with some keen young people / your Oxfam School Group to roll out the postcard action more widely in your school then please take a look at the Stand as One Action Guide. 3 Page 3

4 Option B: Postcard campaign with your class: If you d like to engage young people in writing postcards to their MPs purely during lesson times and as directed by you then here are some activity instructions: Place 2 pieces of flipchart paper up one titled Why are some current UK Immigration rules unfair, and one How could we improve current UK immigration rules. Write down some of the young people s thoughts so everyone can see. Explain to the young people that they will now have a chance to write to their MP about the issues they have learned about in this workshop. If the students are unfamiliar with the idea of influencing their MP, explain what an MP does and how they are the young people s voice in parliament. Write the name of your schools MP on the board. Has anyone met him/her? Hand out the postcards and give them all some time to write their messages. As you go along you might want to read out some of the things their peers have written to inspire them in case they have become a bit stuck. Advise students that they can write their school s name in the space on the postcard but not their own name (for child protection reasons). Collecting the postcards back: Ask students to return the postcards to you by either placing them in a pile that WILL be sent to their MP, or a pile that WON T be sent to their MP. This is an important message in terms of young people s agency and self-determination. Young people should not be forced to lobby their MP on an issue if they don t want to or don t agree with the campaign. By only passing on the postcards of young people who have opted in, you are adding meaning and gravity to your schools campaign. Letters should be collected and sent to the school s MP along with the template covering letter included in this resource pack. Why take the postcard action now? On Friday 16 March 2018 the UK Parliament will debate a new Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill. If it passes into law, this bill will give refugees many of the rights to family reunion Oxfam and other charities are asking for. That s why Oxfam is asking MPs to attend parliament on Friday 16 March 2018 and to vote on the bill. The bill is a Private Members Bill. It is more difficult for a Private Members Bill to become law because it s the free choice of the MPs whether they attend the debate and vote. Furthermore the Bill will be debated on a Friday when many MPs travel to their constituencies. However if 100 MPs attend the debate and support the Bill, it will achieve its next reading and move closer to becoming law. Page 4

5 Activity sheet (one case study per person) Case Study 1: You are an adult man called Muhammed who lived in Syria, but when war began you could no longer stay as you feared for your family s safety. You managed to come to the UK with your wife Amal and your two youngest children and you were granted refugee status (that means you can legally remain in the UK). However you have a son and a daughter aged over 18 who you had to leave behind in Syria. You say: My little kids ask me every day: Dad, what happened with Kusai and Athar? When will they join us? When will we see them and talk to them? UK Rule: Adult refugees can apply to have their close family members join them in the UK this includes wives, husbands and children aged under 18. However requests for their grown up children, or other family members (sisters, brothers, in laws, aunts etc) to join them will usually be refused. What change does the Stand as One campaign want? When UK immigration rules refer to close family members, they should include children over 18. It should also include young adults who were dependant on the family unit prior to fleeing; parents, siblings and in-laws and any dependent relative. Pretend to be Muhammad. Ask the person sitting next to you to interview you: Case Study 1 questions: How is your life Muhammed? Why can t the UK government help you? Case Study 2: You are a 17-year-old boy called Nabil. You are from Syria, but when bombs started falling you escaped alone to Lebanon (a country that borders Syria). Many of your family members were killed but some survived, including your brother who is safe in Scotland. But because of UK rules you cannot legally travel to join him. Instead you decided to travel alone by land and sea to France. You nearly drowned when your boat capsized in the Aegean Sea. You ended up in the Jungle in Calais, and take huge risks trying to board lorries into the UK. UK Rule: Only parents can sponsor a lone child to join them in the UK. What change does the Stand as One campaign want? A wider range of relations should be able to sponsor a lone child to join them in the UK; for example, adult siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. Pretend to be Nabil. Ask the person sitting next to you to interview you: Case Study 2 questions: How have the last few months been for you Nabil? Why can t the UK government help you? Page 5

6 Case Study 3: You are a 16-year-old boy called Tesfa from Eritrea. In Eritrea boys are routinely forced to join the army against their will. Your own brother was taken by soldiers and wasn t heard from again. Soldiers even came into your school so you stopped going. Finally you decided to flee. You didn t have a plan, you just had to keep moving. You passed through Sudan and Libya and eventually ended up in the UK by chance A year and a half after leaving home you managed to speak to your mother, it was the best moment ever. You desperately want to see your mother and younger siblings again but you can t due to UK rules: If I was to be able to be reunited with my family in Britain it would be like a dream. The government is doing its best to help refugees and we thank them for that. But if we re to make our home here then we need our families; people we feel safe and secure with. UK Rule: Even though adult refugees in the UK are allowed to sponsor their closest relatives to join them, lone child refugees are not. What changes does the Stand as One campaign want? Allow lone child refugees to sponsor their closest relatives to join them, so they can be with their families and not in the care system. Pretend to be Tesfa. Ask the person sitting next to you to interview you: Case Study 3 questions: Why did you run away from Eritrea? Is it hard being apart from your family? Why can t the UK government help you? Case Study 4: You are a Zimbabwean refugee living in the UK. I could never have made the application on my own [to sponsor my family to join me]. I m not earning enough money to hire a lawyer. I wouldn t know where to start. I don t agree with this being straightforward. There s a legal piece to everything. Like applying for family reunion. It s a legal thing to get approval from government. They want to see an argument being put across. I ve heard of people struggling until now in bringing their family over. It s difficult. UK Rule: Legal aid is not provided for refugees applying for their family members to join them. What change does the Stand as One campaign want? Reintroduce legal aid for refugee family reunion. Pretend to be the refugee in your case study. Ask the person sitting next to you to interview you: Case Study 4 questions: What would it mean to you to have legal help? Is it hard being apart from your family? Page 6

7 Case Study 5: Your name is Sharif; you are a man, originally from Iraq. You came to the UK 14 years ago and were given refugee status. You then successfully became a British Citizen. You have applied to bring your family to the UK 4 times but each time you were refused. Eventually your family became so scared of the threat of ISIS to their home town in Iraq that they fled to Europe. Because your family are not allowed to come to the UK, you have joined them in a refugee camp in France. The conditions are awful but you must protect your family. UK Rule: Refugees can sponsor family members forcibly displaced or at risk to join them for free and without proving their income (under the Refugee Family Reunion Policy). However, British citizens cannot. They must pay to sponsor their family members, and must prove they have a minimum income. What change does the Stand as One campaign want? If a British Citizen s family have been forced out of their home country, then the British Citizen should be allowed to sponsor family members in the same way as someone with refugee status (under the Refugee Family Reunion Policy). Pretend to be Sharif. Ask the person sitting next to you to interview you: Case Study 5 questions: How s life Sharif? You are a British Citizens but you are living in a refugee camp how did that happen? How is life in the refugee camp? Page 7

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