Seeking Sanctuary
Seeking Sanctuary
A History of Refugees in Britain
Jane Marchese Robinson
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by
Pen & Sword History
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire Philadelphia
Copyright Jane Marchese Robinson 2020
ISBN 978 1 52673 961 2
eISBN 978 1 52673 962 9
Mobi ISBN 978 1 52673 963 6
The right of Jane Marchese Robinson to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
Or
PEN AND SWORD BOOKS
1950 Lawrence Rd, Havertown, PA 19083, USA
E-mail:
Website: www.penandswordbooks.com
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following:
My husband, Tony Marchese for his advice and enduring support.
Marie Cappart, Family Historian who traced my grandmother, Jeanne Marie Krott in the Brussels Archives
Dr Jameson Tucker of Plymouth University who pointed me to a variety of useful Huguenot Sources
Gaynor Haliday for her painstaking editing.
People have been generous in their contributions to this book and I am particularly grateful to the following for their personal accounts:
Ildiko McIndoe formerly Homolya
Bill Meswania
Julia Meiklejohn
Baki Ejupi
Celia Edwards
And many thanks to Cathy Murphy and Andy Varley for accommodating and feeding me when I visited the archives.
5 August 2020
Introduction
T hroughout the ages, people have fled their homeland, nation or country of origin in the face of danger and threats to themselves and their families. War and persecution are powerful motivators, impelling people to seek safety and sanctuary. Some will seek a safe place in their own land, others will cross a border into a neighbouring country, yet others will undertake a potentially dangerous sea crossing. It follows that people seeking sanctuary in Britain would have had to make that journey by sea over the many centuries.
The term refugee was enshrined in the Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, published by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1951. It is sometimes referred to simply as the 1951 Convention. It was written following the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, itself developed in the wake of the Second World War which witnessed the greatest movement of peoples in world history. Article 14 of that declaration recognised the right of persons to seek asylum from persecution in other countries and it is the centrepiece of international refugee protection today. The Convention of 1951 sought to protect the rights of all citizens and ensure their freedoms from many oppressions. It provided the word refugee with a legal definition: someone who is outside his or her own country and unable to be protected by that country owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. The Convention was agreed internationally following the genocide of so many Jewish people and other refugees who sought, both successfully and unsuccessfully, to escape the Nazi regime.
Entering into force on 22 April 1954, the Convention defined how refugees should be helped and was intended to ensure that people would not be blocked or prevented from seeking sanctuary away from persecution in their homeland. Ratified by 145 nations, it outlines the rights of the displaced as well as the legal obligations of the states to protect them. The core principle is non-refoulement which means a refugee must not be returned to a country where he or she could face serious threats to life or freedom. This is considered a customary rule of international law.
However, the term refugee has been used since the seventeenth century and originally referred to the Huguenots who came from France. Indeed, the word derives from the French word refugier , a verb meaning to seek shelter or to protect. These were Protestant people who fled from France when the Edict of Nantes, which had granted them religious liberty and civil rights, was revoked in 1685. Around 400,000 Huguenots fled in the ensuing years. It is estimated that 4050,000 sought refuge in England, most arriving by boat.
However, within a decade the term was in general use in England to describe anyone fleeing religious or political persecution.
People began to seek sanctuary in this country from the sixteenth century onwards as the result of religious persecution of Protestant minorities in the Spanish Netherlands, which roughly equates to modern Belgium. Moslems and Jews expelled by Spain in 1495 were mainly given sanctuary in other European countries and Turkey. However, a small number of Jewish converts, known as conversos, may have reached London under another guise. These people would practise their religion secretly and maintained links with a trading group of Jewish people in Amsterdam.
This book seeks to provide an introduction to the history of those seeking refuge in this country and to recount, wherever possible, the stories of those who sought sanctuary here; why they fled, how they travelled and how they were received in this country.
It is important, however, to state from the outset that the terms refugee and migrant, though sometimes used interchangeably and often confused, are not the same. People migrate in search of a better life than they can find in their place of birth or country of origin. This may be due to famine or poverty or because they are attracted to another country where they envisage they have the prospects of improved economic outcomes. Sometimes they are recruited to work in another country. There is no implied criticism of such aspirations. The origins of the human species provide evidence that people have moved location, whether by push or pull reasons, since the dawn of time.
However, refugees are people who are compelled to seek sanctuary away from their homeland owing to persecution, torture and in fear of their lives. It is important to make this distinction, since both in the modern media and at times in the past the myth has been propagated that refugees have arrived in this country purely for their own pecuniary advantage. Nowadays it has been suggested that they are just here to claim benefits or alternatively to take work from the indigenous British people. Thus, refugees can become scapegoats and this view has been promoted by elements of the media either through ignorance or design.
