NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, United Kingdom — As of the end of 2022, 103 million people across the world had refugee status, displaced from their homes and communities due to conflict and persecution. Twelve years after war broke out in Syria, the country remains the source of the globe’s most significant refugee crisis. Over 14 million Syrians have fled their homes as a result of the devastating conflict, with many of them traveling abroad in the hope of finding safety for themselves and their families. One country that has become home to Syrian refugees is the U.K.; they accounted for 10% of the refugees who resettled in Britain in 2022. Read on to find out more about the lives of Syrian refugees in the UK, and what can still be done to help them settle and thrive.
The Syrian Refugee Crisis
The crisis began when Syria’s government implemented a violent crackdown against protestors criticizing the arrest of teenagers who had painted anti-government graffiti in the town of Daraa. The conflict between demonstrators and government forces escalated into a civil war that is still being fought.
Since war broke out, millions of Syrians have left the country in search of refuge. According to UNHCR, Over 70% of Syrian refugees live in poverty, struggle to access education and employment and face the possibility of never being able to return to their home country. In neighboring countries, where the vast majority of Syrian refugees are living, conditions are deteriorating. Economic instability in Lebanon, for instance, has meant that over 90% of Syrians who have fled there are reliant on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, such as clean water, food, medicine and shelter. In Turkey, nine in every 10 Syrian refugees do not have enough money to cover their monthly costs.
Syrian Refugees in the UK
Between 2014 and 2021, the British government ran the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS). While active, it resettled approximately 20,000 people who had fled the Syrian Civil War and journeyed across Europe to find safety. It is the largest resettlement program that the U.K. has conducted in the modern era. The U.K. Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) replaced it and amalgamated the VPRS, the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS) and the Gateway Protection Programme.
Syrian refugees have a 99% acceptance rate when applying for asylum in the U.K. The country ranked sixth in terms of how many people it provided protection to, including both resettled refugees and asylum seekers. “Of all refugees who resettled in Britain between January 2010 and December 2021, 70% were Syrian.” However, there are also significant issues when it comes to the U.K.’s treatment of refugees.
Facing Delays
One problem is the delays that many people applying for asylum face. Where 87% of applications in the second quarter of 2014 received a decision within six months, that number fell to 6% in the same period in 2021. At the end of 2021, over 100,000 people were awaiting an initial decision from the Home Office concerning their asylum applications, according to The Migration Observatory.
If they get refugee status, they only have “28 days to find accommodation” before they are evicted from the asylum housing they are initially provided. This leads to some asylum seekers becoming homeless.
Furthermore, as those seeking asylum in the U.K. legally cannot work or claim benefits, their sole means of support is often asylum support, which provides them with only around £5.84 per day with which to support themselves.
Adnan’s Story
The Borgen Project spoke to Adnan about his life as a Syrian refugee living in the U.K. Adnan came to the U.K. in 2015 from his hometown of Raqqa, when he was 16 years old. Of his journey, he said, “It was really hard. We walked for hundreds of miles and the boat journey from Turkey to Greece was scary. I thought I might die, but we made it safely.”
Adnan, his younger brother and his mother resettled in Nottingham under VPRS. Since then, Adnan has taken English language and mathematics classes, and last year, scored a place at university to study engineering. “I like living in Nottingham and I feel happy here, even though I still miss home,” he explained, adding that, “University is hard! But I feel lucky to have a good education here, and I want to help my family to have a better life.”
The Syrian refugee crisis is, evidently, ongoing. In recent months, the catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey and northern Syria have further compounded it. Refugees and internally displaced Syrians who were already vulnerable have had their accommodation destroyed, with almost 1 million people in urgent need of shelter after the disaster hit; many did not survive the tragedy. For those who have found safety abroad, many challenges still lie in their path, including laws that make finding financial and housing stability more difficult.
However, many Syrian refugees in the UK, like Adnan and his family, are managing to rebuild their lives in the face of incredible odds. Stories like theirs demonstrate how countries in peacetime, like the U.K. can provide life-saving protection to refugees and asylum seekers, who may face extreme poverty, homelessness, exploitation and even death if they chose to return to their home nations.
– Martha Probert
Photo: Flickr