Activity 8: Unaccompanied Child Refugees Today

Facts

  • Today, there are thousands of refugee children each year who make the journey to Britain on their own.
  • In 1999, 3,348 unaccompanied refugee children came to Britain.
  • 60-70% of whom were 16/17 years old.

Your task

  • Find out how unaccompanied child refugees are treated in Britain today.  Who is responsible for them? 
  • What rights do child refugees have?
  • Each refugee is an individual.  To overcome prejudice we must see people as individuals and should find and hear their stories.  In your research, find a modern day child refugee’s story to retell.
  • Find out about the countries where the refugees come from.  Are these places at war?  Is it a violent place?  Who supplies the weapons for the conflicts?  Is this information relevant in deciding who is responsible for their refugee status?
  • In small groups, discuss the particular difficulties that you think unaccompanied child refugees to Britain face today.  Consider the implications for them of the following factors:
    • not being with their families
    • language
    • education
    • culture
    • prejudice


Where and how do I start my research?

This depends on where you live and who you are.

If you are a refugee and you feel comfortable telling people your story, you have much to contribute to this work. It will be interesting for you and other people in your class to see what connections there are between your experiences of the world so far.  You should not feel under any pressure to talk about things that upset you or make you angry.

If you live in a community with refugees, talk to people. This may be hard if you’re shy…but if you’re not it’s the best starting place.  A word of caution:  you should be sensitive to the fact that many refugees have experienced traumatic events.  They may not want to talk about what has happened to them.  Also, they may not want to be picked out and identified as refugees.  The point about this work is to realise that everyone is an individual, with feelings and ideas.  Everyone has a story to tell and everyone should be treated with equal respect. 

If there are no refugees where you live, you need to go to knowledgable people, books and the internet.  Be careful with the internet.  There are some fascist websites that spread hatred about refugees.  If you come across these consider why they might be doing this. 


Good starting places