Explain the difference between a refugee and an asylum seeker.

A refugee is someone who is forced to migrate to another country because they are escaping violence, or war, or they are in fear of persecution. An asylum seeker, is somebody who has migrated to another country, but has not been formally accepted as a refuge yet, as they havent brought documents which say the reasons why they have moved, and their details. For instance, The Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian boat people after the Vietnamese War came from Vietnam to the UK, in seek of refuge in the 1970s. They would have been considered as asylum seekers until the government in the UK accepted them as refugees, and they filled in the appropriate documents. They were escaping the war in Vietnam, and so given the title of refugee, because it was a reason that conformed to what was decided at the United Nations convention relating to the status of refugees. Another example, is the Afghan refugees who fled their country to Pakistan, to escape the Soviet War that was happening in Afghanistan. In total, 3.3 million Afghan refugees were housed in Pakistan, which was approximately a quarter of their whole population. That 3.3 million were housed, and so filled in the required documents, to stay in Pakistan, which classes them as refugees, not Asylum seekers. Furthermore, when the British and the United States invaded Afghanistan after September 11 2001, more Afghans became refugees and moved to other countries. By the end of 2001, there were 5 million Afghans in Pakistan altogether, and another 2.5 million in Iran. This adds up to make 7.5 million Afghans in other countries; which was a third of the total population at the time. However, if Pakistan or Iran had been more strict on how many people could enter the country, and didnt allow people to enter as refugees, then they would be asylum seekers and they wouldnt have anywhere to go, so they would have to stay in Afghanistan, in fear of being affected by the war, or they would have to try to move to another country. An example of this is China, who already have a

problem with a rapidly increasing population, so they would not want to allow refugees into the country, because this would heighten their problem.