Media Storm - World Refugee Week: New data, same old story

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Support Media Storm’s ethical journalism on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast It’s World Refugee Week and the results are in: join us as we crunch the latest numbers on global displacement, to see how Europe and the UK are ranking on the hospitality charts. Spoiler: it’s not very well. This bonus episode combines new data with lived experience testimonies, as we revisit some of the stories from our first ever episode, ‘El Dorado: Why do refugees love the UK?’ The episode is created by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia). The music is by Samfire (@soundofsamfire). Sources: UK asylum seekers: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01403/ EU asylum seekers: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_asyappctza/default/table?lang=en National population data: https://population.un.org/wpp/ More on Media Storm Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/mediastormpod or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mediastormpod or Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@mediastormpod like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MediaStormPod send us an email [e-mail] check out our website https://mediastormpodcast.com   Media Storm was first launched from the house of The Guilty Feminist and is part of the Acast Creator Network. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/media-storm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peramount Wolfe Check out the big stars, big series, and blockbuster movies. Streaming on Paramount Plus. Cue the music. Like NCIS, Tony, and Ziva. We'd like to make up for own rules. Tulsa King. We want to take out the competition.

The substance. This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome. Now that's a mountain of entertainment. Paramount Wolf. Hello, listeners, and happy Refugee Week. This week is a week of awareness, action and solidarity for people fleeing conflict, persecution and natural disaster.

It's also a week of data as local, national and international organisations share their latest findings on global displacement. And we have decided to take that chance to give you all an up-to-date picture of the asylum state today. Matilda, talk us through the findings. Right, so the big annual report comes from UNHCR, the UN High Commission for Refugees. It's their global trends report, which looks at the whole of 2022 and tells us where people are fleeing from, where they're going to, and lots of other key overviews. So the main places refugees are coming from are...

Syria, Ukraine and then Afghanistan. Syria's civil war has been going on since 2011. Afghanistan has seen a mass exodus since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, and Ukraine has been under invasion from Russia since January 2022. And where are they going to? The three countries hosting the highest number of refugees are Turkey, Iran and Colombia. Would not have guessed that. Three very big countries, though, so I suppose the next question is,

which countries are hosting the most refugees per capita? Good question, because topping that list are Aruba, Lebanon and Curacao. Something I'm noticing with all these countries is that none of them are among the wealthiest countries and none of them are in Europe. Yeah, good spot. This year's report found a whopping 76% of refugees are hosted in low and middle-income countries. The world's least developed countries

host one of every five refugees. So let's turn the lens on Europe. Media Storm's first ever episode was on asylum seekers coming through Europe, so people arriving without papers in order to claim asylum. asylum. And Matilda, you gave me a little quiz about where they were mostly going to. You didn't do very well, did you? Okay, rude. But no, ultimately, I thought the UK was taking

a lot more than it turned out to be, because the sense you get from every UK paper is that we're inundated with arrivals. Right, but this was back in 2021. And since then, we've definitely seen an increase in people crossing the channel in small boats. We have a lot more talk in the press of record numbers, our own home secretary, calling it an invasion. So I was genuinely curious to see with the new data whether that ranking has changed, whether the UK is now getting more than other European countries. And I guess we're about to find out. Yeah, can you set us off again with that? Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Theme? Oh yeah, my favourite show.

Helena, put these same five European countries in order of which received the most asylum seekers in The UK, France, Germany, Spain and Greece. Okay, with my now slightly less limited knowledge, I'm going to go for Germany, France, Greece, Spain, the UK. Ooh, that would have been almost correct last time. You've definitely learned. So Germany's at the top, then France, then Spain, and then the UK and then Greece. So that's one difference. UK has overtaken Greece in terms of absolute numbers, but it's still receiving half the

numbers that France is receiving, a third that of Germany. And probably the more telling assessment is the per capita ranking. So next question. Helena, put the same five countries in order of which per capita received the most asylum seekers in 2022. Okay, so I imagine the UK would be slightly higher, maybe Germany, France, the UK, Greece, Spain. And this is interesting that you think that. Because I think that we think, you know, the UK's a much smaller country than a lot of these countries. And so, you know, per capita, we're probably ranking way better.

Right. But that's not true. So on this ranking, Greece goes straight to the top. So even though they had the smallest number, per capita, they outstrip any of the others. And the UK is right at the bottom. And I mean, way down. So it's Greece, Germany, Spain. and then France, and UK has a proportion that is half of any of the others.

Wow, and this just shows how important context is to telling the story. Just by giving proper context, news outlets in both the UK and Europe as a whole, judging by the Global Trends Report, would stop firing up needless fears that their country is being completely overrun. Exactly. Europe's so-called refugee crisis must be contextualised with how it fits into the world's refugee crisis. So, too, must the UK's be contextualised with how it fits into Europe's? Because this is where we really start to understand why people are coming

and what responses could actually affect positive change. And this is where we want to revisit the stories of those we spoke to in our first ever episode. People coming to claim asylum in the UK after making their way through increasingly hostile EU states. The UK as a destination for asylum can only be understood when we look at its place on the pipeline of European displacement, a Europe which, as you've said, is increasingly shutting its borders. There, the UK is the final destination.

It's the last resort. This week, we're bringing back a redacted version of our first ever investigation. A topic at the heart of a raging, unrelenting media storm. We will be taking back control. Our asylum system is fundamentally broken. How have we become this country who stand by while the refugee crisis? Because there are a few wretched souls on the other side of the world doing.

If the perception is that they're losing control on immigration, that could prove fatal. Welcome to MediaStorm, the news podcast that starts with the people who are normally asked last. I'm Matilda Mallinson. I'm Helen Awadier. This week's bonus investigation. Europe's refugee crisis. New data. Same old story. channel migrants often start on our horizon, but the real news story lies beyond. On the outskirts of France's coastal towns, like Calais and Dunkirk, lie ramshackle refugee camps. If you want to understand why people are coming, there's one place to start. The jungle.

Oh shit. I'm just heading very off-road to me. A Kurdish man who's going to take us to his campsite. If I'm struggling to drive on this road, imagine what it's like sleeping on it. It's muddy. He introduces himself by his full name, Jammer Ali Mahmoud, then tells me everything I see will soon be destroyed by police. People are cold, he says. They cannot have less than they have now. But he insists he's happy because he's out of Kurdistan, his home nation, which falls within Iraqi territory, and where he fears he'll be killed for political dissent. Now I can't see my picture, my back, Kurdistan. He's just showing me photos of his back with clear torture injuries. This is in Kurdistan. You were jailed.

Yeah. Would you claim asylum in France? Never. Why not? I think police, Kurdistan, with police France, not different. If 10 years I am in jungle, I don't want asylum in France. If 10 years I live in jungle. But one tent in jungle, better vela in Kurdistan.

A tent in a jungle is better than the weather in the forest. Yes, of course. Of course, because in Kurdistan I am near die. Yes. I don't like to leave you sad. No problem. Sometimes my mother, she said, she said, I can go back to Kurdistan. You, my son, I need your love.

If change government, I go back to Kurdistan. If not change, I can't. I am dying. Jaume is not alone in his fear of French police. Over in Calais, I meet a group of Sudanese refugees, both men and boys. making a fire for the night. Yesterday, there was a group of Sudanese refugees who went to this lorry service station near the jungle.

They call it the station of the devil. A security guard let his dog loose and he chased them, bit someone and drew blood, while another man fell and broke his leg running away. I asked the UK to take all the Sudanese and refugees from the jungle. Being here is an unbearable struggle. We need rest. Please, with whatever way possible, save us from this situation,

from these unleashed dogs, these unsanitary conditions, the police brutality. Please, please, please, save us from this injustice. Hey, lovely listeners, we've launched a Patreon, a little online community where you can subscribe to media, storm for a small monthly fee as an act of support for the work that we do. You'll also get access to some special bonus advantages which we're going to be launching next week on the platform. A special shout out to our first early bird subscribers. If you want to help us build our media storm community, head to patreon.com forward slash media storm podcast. Link is in the show notes. Of course, some people do apply in France and then they get rejected.

Either their fake refugees, as some politicians in media claim, or safe countries simply aren't offering enough spaces for everybody. The consequence? Overspill. My name is Ali Reza. I'm 28 years old and I'm Iranian. I went to Germany and applied for asylum in Germany. It's so amazing. I don't know why. In nine months, they send me a letter.

You must go back to Iran. We understand that there isn't any reason for you to stay in Germany. While I know my life is in danger in Iran, after that I applied for asylum in France, they said, no, you must go back to Germany. Everybody in an English citizen, I see in some Twitter pages, your economical migrants or something like this. But we don't have any other way. I'm not idiot to cross the channel while I know it's dangerous. It's dangerous. But when I don't have any other ways, how can I do?

You know, being homeless, being homeless, while you had a place in your country, you had, you had a normal life. We had respect, we had everything. You're just thinking about go, go, go, go, go. Greece, go, Germany, go. France, go. Here is not your place. Can I ask, when did you learn to speak English?

My mother told me, you must learn a second language. For the moment, English is the most important language in the world. Do you speak any French? Yes, a bit. And do you speak any German? Yes, I do. And do you speak any Greek? Yes.

That's very impressive. Yeah. Actually, I don't know if you know about Prophet Solomon. There is a story in Koran about Prophet Solomon. He could speak all of the languages and also, even with the bears, with the animal. I would like to learn all of the languages. It's so fun. Oh, bonjour, como tell you, blah, blah, blah.

Hello, big kids. Allis good. Yasas, Tikhanis. Very good. A whole medley. France isn't the only safe country in Europe that people are coming from. Ezra in Bahir, who are using pseudonyms to protect their children, are seeking refuge from Iraq.

There, it's square zero of the UK's asylum. process. For them, it's a huge step back. They were in Austria for five years, and they had hope, Ezra tells me. Going to school, learning German, making friends. They stayed through xenophobic abuse through years of limbo. They stayed even when something really tragic happened. The accident happened, this mistake, happened 26th of December, 2017. Ezra had to go to hospital for a chronic illness. illness. They didn't let Bahia in the ambulance with her, and at this time Ezra spoke no German.

And then they performed an emergency operation, a warning that this interview is distressing. First four months, she was not move anything from her body, just the head. After six months, she's just started to move a toe. Ezra was left paralyzed. Two, three times she tried to kill herself. I'm sorry. I needed the bathroom. They told me to go myself, but I couldn't move, and they didn't believe that I couldn't move.

They said I was lying. My hijab fell off, and I asked for it to be put back, but no one responded. No one did it. They just didn't care. They took off all my clothes to run tests. Then they left the room and I asked for them to cover me or to put my clothes back on and they didn't.

They just left me like that until the morning. Two and a half years later, Austria rejected their asylum claim. We lost her health. We lost her rights. Some people, they say, a political decision. and other people they say they have just enough number from asylum people but they not care about the human rights this is the point

that's how they ended up in a dingy on the channel you move country to Austria from Austria to Germany from Germany to France from France on the sea to UK this is hard we thought about healthy of my wife and future for me children we don't have rights in our country we need building our life we're not waiting to take something no no never I need to build the future of my children and to make my wife healthy if it's possible I can work and that's it we not ask about something impossible just a human right for people

To turn the page of Austria and open a new chapter here and live here in safety, God willing. There's one more story I want to tell you, and I'm sorry for the overload, but understanding what is really meant by a broken asylum system is a lot more complicated than many media imply. This is the story of two Afghan sisters, separated by borders. a British citizen, brought to the UK by her husband long ago, an Atier, a 16-year-old girl. She is fleeing forced marriage to a 70-year-old man.

She said to me, they sold me, and I will kill myself on the wedding day. We're using their first names only to avoid attracting their family's attention. Sonia has tried everything to bring Atier over, but the Afghan resettlement scheme hasn't responded to her appeal and the UK's child resettlement scheme ceased last year. I sit down with Sonia to call her sister, who's in hiding. Please answer my phone. What was the last time you heard from her?

This morning, honestly, if anything happened to her, I won't be alive anymore. The guilt that I haven't done enough for her. Finally, we got through. Johnny, has he kept, why don't have my life? She's saying the reason that I don't want to go out of my room, I'm scared that the people that I've been sold to them, they find me. I don't know what I can't, what I'm doing,

that I'm going to dover as I'm, what I'm doing this place. She's saying, I don't know what else to do. I'm just my only hope is to be with you. Etienne mutes herself, so we don't hear her crying. She's just turning 16, but, Deep down of her size, she is very depressed. And also in Islam, the girl should not die virgin. So what they do?

First, they take your virginity and then they kill you. Just help my child. I am not going to call her my sister. She has only me. I think there are three things to understand. understand. Firstly, asylum to the UK can't be addressed by policies that focus solely on reducing the UK's pull factors. The reality is that most people are being pushed here by the lack of reception elsewhere, to the country at the tail end of Europe's refugee trail. The second thing is

that in order to claim asylum here, you basically have to be here first. And the third is that, on the grand scheme of things, not that many people are coming to the UK or even to Europe when we look at the realities worldwide. So why do we think they are? And is the media responsible for that myth? Here to answer that question for us is Professor Joseph Tejay, joining us now from the University of Ghana. So this is a belief that is held by many people in the global north,

especially in Europe and North America, that everybody is moving to the global and North, especially since 2015, when they saw an infract of refugees from not only Africa but from other Asian countries. So the media has then put out that narrative, say there is a mass overdose to Europe. And people are thinking that if we are allowed, everybody will move to Europe. But this is not true. It's coming from the fact that they are seeing only just a small side of the issue, only those arriving. They don't see the other side where other people are moving to.

And I don't blame them because it is based on how the media has presented it to them. Then it is politicized. So policy makers may capitalize on these. Those that do not want immigrants to come, may promise people that if you vote for me, I will stop all these things from happening. The truth of the matter, the policies being developed today, with migration are not appropriate because they are not based on the right framing of the problem. These are some of the things that need to be decolonized or need to be reformulated.

Thank you for joining us this refugee week. If you learn something new, why not send this episode to someone you think might be interested? Help us spread facts and due context in place of fearmongering and scapegoating and be a part of this week of awareness. MediaStorm returns next week on our usual feed with an investigation into gender identity laws in Scotland. See you then.