Zoe Gardner has put the question of why asylum seekers don’t seek refuge in the first safe country they reach to bed once and for all.
Giving evidence on the Nationality and Borders Bill to the Bill Committee in September 2021, Gardner, who works to protect refugees at the European Network on Stateless, laid out the answer to one of the most parrotted questions by the Conservative right.
She explained that most refugees never come to rich countries like the UK, more go to other countries.
Indeed, 86 per cent of those fleeing war and persecution remain in the country neighbouring the one they have fled, such as Turkey, in the instance of Syria, or Poland, in the case of Ukraine.
Those who travel to the UK will have ties to the country, Gardner said, which is why geography has very little to do with where people end up.
Watch her full response below:
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