Campaigns and Events

**STAR National Action Day – Thursday the 17th of February**

A refugee is a person fleeing serious danger back home. This danger could be many different things, such as, war, political persecution, famine, economic crisis or natural disasters. Refugees must be granted refugee status by the UK Government before they are allowed to settle and start a new life. Until this happens, they are known as an asylum seeker and the process of gaining refugee status is so complex that it can take a very long time, in some cases up to two years. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work until a decision has been reached and a single person applying for asylum receives a mere £33.77 per week to live on. One of the biggest misconceptions is that Britain is a ‘soft touch’ on topics concerning asylum, when in fact Britain only ranked ninth in terms of applications per capita in the EU last year. Iran took one hundred times more refugees than the UK.

STAR stands for Student Action for Refugees, it is a national campaign group, and made up of thirty-five groups across the UK. Thursday the 17th of February is STAR’s National Action Day. The square will be completely taken over with washing lines, on which will be hung the myths about refugees as well as the facts! There will also be many pairs of ‘pants’ around to follow on from the ‘Refugee Policy is PANTS’ campaign. STAR will also have a stall in the hive with all the information you need on the latest campaign to raise awareness for unaccompanied minors. As a fundraiser, cakes will be being sold, so it is worth coming along just to try them out!

When young unaccompanied asylum seekers arrive in the UK, they face an uncertain future alone in a foreign country. STAR is helping to make sure that unaccompanied minors are treated fairly, if you too would like to help then get involved! Membership is only £3 and you give as much time as you feel you can spare. Getting involved also means that you will meet a variety of open-minded people, and gain skills and experience that will help you in the future.

Natalie Northam

Christmas Cards

For this project we asked refugee children to construct christmas cards for us to sell in order to raise money for the discovery/homework club. The Discovery club is basically a project which provdes Refugee children with a chance to learn about British culture.

UNNACCOMPANIED MINORS!! October 2004

This is our first stall where we raised awareness on the issue of unnaccompanied minors. We did this by popping the balloons and revealing the truth inside the balloon to contradict the allegation made by the press which was on the outside the balloon!!!

SWIM IN THE SEA FOR A REFUGEE!

SWIM IN THE SEA FOR A REFUGEE!!

This basically involved us BRAVE star members running into the icy cold February north sea off the coast of Lowestoft in order to raise awareness and funds for refugees and asylum seekers in Norwich.

This publicity stunt consisted of hanging a washing line all over campus with undergarments attached to it with the aim of raising awarness of STAR's view of the way in which the government handles the refugee situation.

Which is of course PANTS!!!