{"id":306365,"date":"2017-05-03T03:10:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T02:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/british-asylum-anomaly-leaves-doctors-driving-cabs-video\/"},"modified":"2017-05-03T03:10:51","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T02:10:51","slug":"british-asylum-anomaly-leaves-doctors-driving-cabs-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/british-asylum-anomaly-leaves-doctors-driving-cabs-video\/","title":{"rendered":"British asylum anomaly leaves \u2018doctors driving cabs\u2019 (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        An \u201canomaly\u201d exists in the UK\u2019s asylum system whereby people under so-called \u2018humanitarian protection\u2019 lack the same rights as refugees when it comes to accessing higher education, despite both groups fleeing persecution and similar traumas.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>People under humanitarian protection, unlike refugees, must have lived in the UK for at least three years before they are able to access home tuition fees or student loans.<\/p>\n<p>The policy can cause delays for people starting their studies, deterring them from pursuing their original career plans.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RDoC7x5gIiY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Humanitarian protection is offered if there are general risks posed by the death penalty, torture or other inhumane treatment in a person\u2019s home country. Refugee status is given to people facing danger as individuals because of their race, nationality or religion.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to RT, Student Action for Refugees (STAR) director Emma Williams said:<em> \u201cIt\u2019s bad enough having lost everything and being subjected to horrific persecution, torture and [\u2026] lose your family and have to start again here.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHaving to the sit and wait for three years, having been told that you can stay in the country and we agree that you have a well-founded fear and you should stay here, to then have to wait is very challenging.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/386053-refugees-support-resettlement-homelessness\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2017.04\/thumbnail\/58ff11cac46188425a8b45c6.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Eddie Keogh\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Williams said there are cases where people abandon their career plans because they are forced to wait three years before going to university.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou see underemployment with refugees, significant underemployment, so I challenge anybody to ask their taxi driver where they are from and what they did before they came.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt\u2019s a very depressing conversation to have, many, many people are refugees and they say \u2018Yeah in my country I was a doctor, but retraining was going to take me seven years and was going to cost me too much money so I didn\u2019t.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>She added there is a<em> \u201creal lack of use of this amazing kind of resource that people are bringing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If students are kept from going to university, they may fail to reach their full potential and fail to <em>\u201cgive back to the country\u201d<\/em> all that they could, William said.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Maybe the cure for cancer is sitting in someone\u2019s brain, but we haven\u2019t enabled them to go to university.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Campaigning for inclusion\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Following a proposal to amend the Higher Education and Research Bill so that student finance is made accessible to all those who have been granted humanitarian protection, the government recently conceded that Syrians should be given refugee status so that they may enjoy the same rights of British students to education.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Williams, whose charity backed the proposal, told RT there are a <em>\u201cwhole load of other people\u201d<\/em> who should also be granted access to university funding, such as Rohingya Muslims, who are fleeing ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, as well as former Afghan interpreters.<\/p>\n<p>However, there are also those who come here to claim asylum and <em>\u201coften for no fault of their own\u201d<\/em> have to wait a long time before the Home Office makes a decision on their case.<\/p>\n<p>In some instances, the Home Office considers a case too <em>\u201ccomplicated\u201d<\/em> to rule upon, so individuals are given humanitarian protection rather than refugee status.<\/p>\n<p>Williams, however, said there is<em> \u201cabsolutely no reason\u201d<\/em> why people under humanitarian protection should be kept from accessing student finance <em>\u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>International students<\/h3>\n<p>Those who are under humanitarian protection in the UK and pursue higher education are classified as international students and are therefore forced to pay higher tuition fees compared to home students.<\/p>\n<p>Current fees for international students are between \u00a310,000 and \u00a335,000 (US$13,000 to $45,000), according to the chosen degree and institution. By contrast, tuition fees for home students will amount to a maximum of \u00a39,250 per year by autumn 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Williams said classing those with leave to remain as international students is <em>\u201ccrazy,\u201d<\/em> as they do not have<em> \u201ca choice\u201d<\/em> but to come here in order to <em>\u201csave their lives.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>She said the UK should instead be enabling such individuals to <em>\u201cstart rebuilding their lives as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Refugees are not people who have returned from abroad and have failed to<em> \u201cpay in\u201d<\/em> in the way British returnees are required, the STAR director said, but they are people <em>\u201cfleeing their lives,\u201d<\/em> and who Britain has committed to protect.<br \/><em\/><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThese are people fleeing for their lives and we\u2019ve offered to help them rebuild their lives so we really need to start doing that immediately.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOtherwise you are basically just warehousing people and letting all those skills and enthusiasm atrophy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Education rebuilding lives<\/h3>\n<p>Williams said we should <em>\u201ccelebrate\u201d<\/em> people who have fled persecution as<em> \u201csurvivors\u201d<\/em> and <em>\u201csupport them to improve their education and their chances, either to rebuild successful lives in the UK or to go back and rebuild their country when we hope the place is much calmer.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/384325-refugee-children-dunkirk-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.04\/thumbnail\/58eca3d6c36188b0608b45ad.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9\u00a0Louisa Gouliamaki\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>\u201cIf you just leave people in the corner and say \u2018we are not going to help you and we are not going to enable you to have your education\u2019 then [\u2026] I think we are not being fair to those people we\u2019ve offered to give a new start to.<\/em><br \/><em>\u201cBut we are also missing an opportunity for ourselves,\u201d she said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe could always do more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Williams claimed it is just a matter of time before the government grants student finance, as it did with the Syrians, to those under humanitarian protection.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt\u2019s not to do with a sort of gradation of how terrible the war is over there.<\/em><br \/><em\/><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThere is persecution, there is torture, sadly, in many states across the world and our government recognizes that, if you look at the Home Office guidance on who they give refugee status to.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Williams called on the Department for Education (DfE), the Home Office and the Department for International Development (DFID) to coordinate better.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<em>\u201cTeachers, doctors, academics, they were just sort of stuck driving cabs, and that\u2019s a waste to us and it\u2019s a waste to when we hope they\u2019ll be able to go home and rebuild their country,\u201d<\/em> she said.<\/p>\n<p>People want to return to their own country, \u201c<em>but they need to continue with their careers and their education to build themselves so that they can go back and really build a strong country,\u201d<\/em> she added.<\/p>\n<p>RT contacted the Department for Education and the Home Office for comment. Both declined to make a statement, claiming it may interfere with the June 8 general election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/386829-immigration-asylum-refugees-education\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An \u201canomaly\u201d exists in the UK\u2019s asylum system whereby people under so-called \u2018humanitarian protection\u2019 lack the same rights as refugees when it comes to accessing higher education, despite both groups fleeing persecution and similar traumas. People under humanitarian protection, unlike refugees, must have lived in the UK for at least three years before they are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-306365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}