Written Assignment

Rationale:
My written assignment will focus on the topic of Humanitarian assistance for
Refugees, which I find really interesting because of the reasons that lead one
person to leave behind their culture and life. The four sources that I’ll use to explain
this phenomenon are: the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), my second source is an online article that talks about the
migrant crisis and the UK response, the third are the facts about refugees and
asylum seekers of the Refugee Council through its website and, my final source is
a video made by the British Red Cross about the life of a refugee.

My written assignment aim is to inform a general audience about the hard

circumstances that refugees face around the world and what they have to go
through to save their lives and their loved ones, also as a community we can help
them increase their quality of life. I decided to write an article to seriously consider
the facts and the history of refugees with the importance that it deserves.

(178 words)
 “Being Human is being humanitarian”
The Humanitarian assistance is the response given to humanitarian needs and
emergencies that result from a conflict or global issue. Currently several conflicts
have arisen from crises all around the world, which means that there is a large
amount of the population of the countries where these conflicts take place that
have been forced to flee their homes in order to be safe.

About the refugees

The refugees are diverse people who are fleeing conflict or persecution. They are
protected by several agreements and most importantly, by international law, which
allows them to seek help or asylum in other countries so they can find a safe
environment where they will not be expelled or sent back to their place of origin.

For many of us to think that this could be our reality seems impossible, but this is
the reality for 65 million people around the globe, and it is terrifying. For Eric
Nkundumubano, a refugee in the UK who escaped the genocide of Rwanda, this
was his reality when the population started fighting against the government forces
and a Civil War started. But Eric was lucky when the Red Cross helped him to find
a safe place for him and his family.

What is the UK doing for them?

Unfortunately, humanitarian assistance is mostly given by poor countries that look
after the majority of the world’s refugees. The UN1 states that nine out of ten of the
world’s refugees are sheltered by developing countries. Given this fact, most
refugees move from one poor country to another. Plus over 347,000 people have
arrived in Europe by the sea and about half are women and children, normally they
get to Europe’s borders where they struggle with the large number of desperate
migrants refugees. During the WWII2 there was one of the greatest refugee crises
and now history has repeated itself and relatively few people make it to Britain in
their search for safety.

However Britain has refused to help refugees and has actually been sending
people seeking asylum back to countries on Europe’s borders, further adding to the
chaos. But the rest of the UK has accepted more than 1,000 refugees from Syria
under the VPR3. And thanks to Dave Cameron the government has promised to
take in 20,000 refugees by 2020.

(382 words)

1 The United Nations Refugee Agency

2 Second World War
3 Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme
References
 http://www.unhcr.org/refugees.html
 http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34139960
 http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/news/4805_top_20_facts_about_ref
ugees_and_asylum_seekers
 http://www.redcross.org.uk/en/What-we-do/Refugee-support/Refugees-true-
stories/Erics-story-seeking-refuge-from-a-genocide