“Every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror.[i]”
Here at Eastbrook Comprehensive School, we want to honour those persons who have suffered from the trauma of displacement. In my time as EAL coordinator, I’ve had the privilege to meet several students over the years who came to the UK and our school as refugees or Asylum Seekers. Their stories I will carry with me throughout my career as an educator.
I offer you a few stories of wonderful young people. Please note that names, dates, and other identifying features have been changed or removed to protect privacy.
Amir* came in for an interview with his foster mum. He stood tall for a potential year 9 student, with well-groomed, stylish hair, and amber eyes that seemed to know things he shouldn’t know. He didn’t have any identification or know his birthday. In fact, he’d come to the UK tied underneath a lorry after being abandoned in his village.
He didn’t remember his father, just that he’d left to fight bad people and had never come back. His mum kept him out of the villages, living in tunnels under the ground as the bombs fell more often in the town and by buildings. She would leave him in the fox holes to get food and come back to him. Till one day she didn’t come back.
Eventually he wandered into the village, an older child, tall and skinny, and began asking for work in exchange for food before going back out to the fox holes by himself. Eventually he traveled from the Middle East to France in trucks, and eventually crossed the English Channel where he ended up wandering around the streets of East Ham before being taken in by social workers. He could speak several languages, but not write his name in any of them. As an early teenager we showed him how to hold a pencil, do basic numeracy, and read.
Despite his lack of education, he had a profound impact on his year group. He was always respectful, though many teachers were very unsure of him, and because of his “hard” background, he had great clout with other students in his year group, particularly other boys with difficult life stories. He left us to go to college after year 11 after making incredible progress despite his starting points. We honour his story and wish him all future success and happiness.
Amina* came to us from East Africa, after living alone in a refugee camp for most of her life. She came to her interview in the middle of year 9 with her father, with whom she had recently reunited.
When she was three years old, terrorists attacked her village and killed her mother. Her father fled, and having been at work, he was separated from her, and eventually obtained Asylum Seeker status and then residency in the UK. He was sure that Amina was dead like her mother and lived a lonely life in East London.
She lived in a sprawling refugee camp across the border, going to school there and living off the kindness of others until she was 10 years old. One day, a friend of her father’s recognized her and got word to him that he thought Amina was alive. He worked long shifts at a factory in saving every pence he could, and 4 years later reunited with Amina, bringing her to the UK as an Asylum Seeker.
She was a clever and hard-working girl, though her education at the refugee camp was as could be expected. She had many knowledge and skills gaps. She dreamed to be an engineer and worked night and day to improve her English language, maths and science skills. In fact, Amina was so serious about study that she would often get frustrated with her “childish” colleagues, and it took her a while to make friends.
With some extra support at college, she did eventually get into university for engineering, and we couldn’t be more proud of her.
These are just a sample of the stories of young people I have met who should be celebrated this World Refugee Day. We see you. We stand with you. We support you.
Facts about World Refugee Day from UNHRC website[ii]
There are several types of forcibly displaced persons:
Refugees
A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.
Asylum Seekers
Asylum seekers say they are refugees and have fled their homes as refugees do, but their claim to refugee status is not yet definitively evaluated in the country to which they fled.
Internally Displaced Persons
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are people who have not crossed an international border but have moved to a different region than the one they call home within their own country.
Stateless Persons
Stateless persons do not have a recognized nationality and do not belong to any country.
Statelessness situations are usually caused by discrimination against certain groups. Their lack of identification — a citizenship certificate — can exclude them from access to important government services, including health care, education or employment.
Returnees
Returnees are former refugees who return to their own countries or regions of origin after time in exile. Returnees need continuous support and reintegration assistance to ensure that they can rebuild their lives at home.
* Please note that names, dates, and other identifying features have been changed or removed to protect privacy.
[i] https://www.un.org/en/observances/refugee-day
[ii] https://www.un.org/en/observances/refugee-day