Refugee, not a refugee, or asylum seeker… or….

A bicycle has two wheels, but not everything with two wheels is a bicycle.

Grandpa

Let’s try to make it clearer… we are dealing with a number of target groups over here, and one target group is refugees:

~refugee: A refugee is someone who has a ‘well-founded fear’ of persecution in his home country on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular ethnic or social group, and who is denied protection in his own country. For that reason, he flees to another country and is there temporarily. The goal of this group is to have a safe place, but temporarily because the ultimate goal is to return to their home country. But only if your host country recognizes that there is a well-founded fear of persecution will you be recognized as a refugee.

~asylum seeker: A asylum seeker is someone who has a ‘well-founded fear’ of persecution in his home country on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular ethnic or social group, and who is denied protection in his own country. For that reason, he flees to another country and wants to continue living there. The goal of this group is to have a safe place, permanently, because the ultimate goal is to live safely in the host country. But only if your host country recognizes that there is a well-founded fear of persecution will you be recognized as a asylum seeker.

~not a refugee, but a refugee… A refugee who is not a refugee is someone who has a ‘well-founded fear’ of persecution in his home country on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular ethnic or social group, and who does not receive protection in their own country. For that reason, he flees to another country and is there temporarily. The goal of this group is to have a safe place, but temporarily because the ultimate goal is to return to the homeland they love so much. But the host country does not recognize that “well-founded fear of persecution”… for whatever reason…

The first two groups are relatively “easy” to recognize. The third group… they are the unlucky ones. Because their home country is currently friends with a country that is “not such a good friend with the EU” or perhaps they come from the country “not such a good friend with the EU” and where they do not feel safe and where that well-founded fear of persecution is definitely a problem. But no… they are not recognized as refugees for those political reasons… and they fall through the cracks… and they are anything but safe in their home country, but also not welcome in their “host” country… and then you have a problem. A huge one.

It is a complicated world, and the right answer to the problem? We don’t know it either.