What is an Asylum Seeker?

Question

I have a lot of questions really... I need to know what an Asylum Seeker is, what a Refugee is, and about the Boat people if possible...thanks!

Answer 1

An asylum-seeker is someone that goes to another country asking to be kept safe from their own government or from other powerful people in their own country.

A refugee is often defined as someone who has had their claim for asylum accepted, although really a refugee is just anyone who has had to escape from their homes, very of within their own country, and perhaps because of a natural disaster. Refugees within their own countries are often referred to as "displaced persons", although DPs in 1945 were often outside their native countries.

Boat People usually refers to people who fled Vietnam in the 1980's in small boats. Many of those who survived were eventually offered resettlement in the US or in Europe. There have also been boat people from Cuba.

People often confuse asylum-seekers and refugees with legal and illegal economic migrants, who may pretend to be refugees to be allowed to stay. Migration is as old as human history. Nobady gives up their home easily and for no reason - all migrants should at least be treated with respect.

We all have to share one world, and the rich countries often have some responsibility for the troubles of poorer countries, so they should take some resonsibility for the people from those countries too.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Asylum seekers

Power lines leading to a rubbish dump hover just overhead in El Carpio, a Nicaraguan refugee camp in Costa RicaRefugees are a subgroup of the broader category of displaced persons. Environmental refugees (people displaced because of environmental problems such as drought) are not included in the definition of "refugee" under international law, as well as internally displaced people. According to international refugee law, a refugee is someone who seeks refuge in a foreign country because of war and violence, or out of fear of persecution "on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group" (to use the terminology from U.S. law).