Thread: We're not going to war with France and we all know that, but let's take it as a hypothetical for the purposes of my making a relatively unrelated and spurious point. It works for the government so why not refugee rights? 1/

Imagine we did go to war. How many of the people who claim Syrian refugees, for example, should do so would actually stick around and continue to fight, particularly if Britain lost. It's easy to comment on other people's experiences when you haven't faced them. 2/

Here's an interesting difference for you on refugee regimes btw. The 1951 UN Refugee Convention is primarily focused on those affected domestically, i.e. persecution from within the state, including in a time of war. 3/

Meanwhile Organisation of African Unity Refugee Convention also brings in being forced to flee due to foreign aggression. It's a pretty interesting example of how the history of persecution and conflict, i.e from someone's own government or an external power, affects refugees. 4/

Anyway, back to the point. We are at war with France, and probably a few other countries join in. It's gone badly. We can't produce enough food to sustain ourselves and the country is blockaded. What do you do? 5/

If you stay you risk starvation or being killed in a conflict, but are you being persecuted? That's the question which we see time and again with refugees fleeing elsewhere from pundits and politicians. 6/

Imagine you have to be evacuated from a city. Until you cross an international border you aren't classed a refugee. You are what is known as an "Internally Displaced Person" (IDP). You don't have any additional rights at this point. 7/

Say you do manage to cross a border though. First question is what do you take with you? You can only take what you can carry. I know I am grabbing my phone for one thing. I want to be able to keep in contact. 8/

Think about your possessions now. Do you have a smartphone? Do you have a decent jacket? How much have you spent on these things? Do they look "nice"? Would you expect to be denied refugee status because of those possessions? 9/

That's what we are talking about when you see people saying "they can't be refugees. They have smartphones" etc. Next issue, how do you get across that border? Depending on where you live how far is it? Are you walking, driving etc. 10/

If you are walking how fit and healthy are you? You need to move quickly in these circumstances. How many of your family members can make that journey on foot. What if you knew that if one of you could make it then they could apply for the others to be brought to safety? 11/

Under those circumstances who do you send? Who has the best chance of making it? What about the cost as well though? You have to cross your own country, get into another, maybe cross that because you still don't feel safe. You need food, shelter, maybe transport. 12/

Check your bank balance. How many family members right now can you guarantee you can afford to finance for that sort of cost. Even if you can, should the fact that you have been able to afford to flee mean you are denied refugee status elsewhere? 13/

This is all hypothetical of course, but...it isn't. This is the reality for refugees across the world. People told they "can't be refugees" because they are young and healthy, have a smartphone, have been able to afford to make the journey. 14/

600 years ago Shakespeare wrote Sir Thomas More's speech, and it's still, sadly, relevant. We don't know what may happen in the future. When you see refugees look past the narrative that they're "young men of fighting age" and ask yourself, what would you do in their place. 15/