Refugee Roots

Many refugees and asylum seekers hope for an end to the troubles in their own country so that they can return home. However, the decision to go home is a difficult one, not least because a refugee may lose their permission to enter and stay in the UK.

Organisations such as the United Nations do give people assistance to return home - helping them with transport and the costs of resettling. And as some refugees and asylum seekers might have lost contact with their family who don't live in the UK, the British Red Cross's International Tracing and Message Service can help families find each other. For many, however, a return to their homeland remains an impossible dream.

Of course, there are others who choose not to return to their country of origin at all, even though it is now safe to live there. For these people, Britain now feels more like home, even though they are unlikely to forget their country of origin, or their sense of being from a different culture.