By Stanley Nwankwo
In our maiden publication of this series – International Refugees’ Rights…, we explored some of the notable global frameworks that seek to protect people who were forced to flee conflict and persecution in their home countries to find refuge abroad.
In this sequel, we will shift focus to the prevailing conditions that these people grapple with, culminating into finding their ‘safe-heavens’ abroad, and in the United Kingdom in particular.
To put it into proper perspective, the UK government received an approximate number of 89,509 applications for asylum in the last quarter of 2025. This number of application was made up of about 110,051 people, out of which 58,148 people received a favourable outcome as confirmed refugees.
"We have grouped the top 5 nationalities with the largest number of people claiming asylum in the UK into 3 geographical regions of South Asia 24%, East Africa 8% and the Middle East 7%."
Prevailing conditions that led people to flee their homes and seek refuge in the United Kingdom
In our investigation of the prevailing conditions that have led to people fleeing their home countries to seek refuge abroad, including in the United Kingdom, we have uncovered an often underreported remote evidence of past colonial economic policies as a major cause that is central to other factors.
The UNHCR in its 2025 Global Trends report, underscores adverse climate and environmental degradation, violent conflicts and human rights violations as some of the prevailing factors that have compelled people to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad, including the United Kingdom.
Refugee Action, in their compilation of Home Office statistical report on the effect of climate and environmental degradation as a contributory indices, indicates that the devastation that these countries experience as well as lack of resources to invest in climate resilience, is often as a result of historical exploitation, resource extraction, and ecological degradation driven by former colonial powers, including the UK.
Colonial Heritage
Available studies have shown that ties to colonial heritage, is amongst the top reasons why these refugees and asylum seekers settle for the United Kingdom as a choice refuge destination.
Historical evidence shows that climate and environmental crises do not happen in isolation. In fact, many studies, including – Environmental History: Colonial Policy and Global Development, 1896–1993, points to the availability of primary source data relating to the environmental consequences of Britain’s colonial policies which systematically prioritised resource extraction through plantation agriculture, mining, timber harvesting and export-oriented infrastructure over ecological sustainability; resulting to lasting environmental damage in many former colonies.
The basis of colonial economy often includes deforestation for monoculture cash crops such as cotton, tea and indigo; dredging of river systems to facilitate transportation through waterways, and intensive exploitation of mineral resources to serve imperial trade. All done with little or no restoration planning, resulting in soil degradation, biodiversity loss and weakened climate resilience.
Today, the UK Home Office asylum statistics show that a significant proportion of asylum applicants originate from former British colonies including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, and Afghanistan. With the exception of Afghanistan not formally colonised but was heavily influenced by British imperial control.
These countries experience violent conflicts, political instability and environmental stress as a common push factor contributing to displacement and asylum claims abroad including to the UK.
The UK's Informal Economic Sector
On the other hand, the erstwhile Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has acknowledged that the UK’s informal economic sector may have regrettably acted as a pull factor for many who are fleeing persecution in their home countries.
"Often those travelling to the UK illegally are sold a lie by the people smuggling gangs that they will be able to live and work freely in this country, when in reality they end up facing squalid living conditions, minimal pay and inhumane working hours… We are surging enforcement action against this pull factor."
Situation Report
In recent years, those who have manged to find themselves in the United Kingdom are being integrated across the country through the UK Government’s Afghan Relocation and Settlement Schemes, Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme and Vulnerable Children’s Relocation Scheme. In 2022, Scotland welcomed displaced people from Ukraine through the Scottish Government’s Super Sponsor Scheme.
To help these people – refugees and asylum seekers, and others who are in need of other forms of humanitarian protections integrate in our communities, the Scottish Government in collaboration with COSLA, and Scottish Refugee Council, developed the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy in 2013.
It is in alignment with the New Scots mandate that we at Forth Valley Welcome are committed to welcoming asylum seekers and vulnerable refugees from various backgrounds.
