You can use these arguments and any others you can think of:

• They are desperate, we can't send them back.
• If we will send them back we will be responsible if they are arrested, tortured or killed.
• We have legal obligations to accept refugees.
• They have no money, and will need state support. Our country cannot afford that.
• Can they prove that they are genuine refugees? Maybe they are just here to look for a better standard of living?
• Our country is a military and business partner of country X. We can't be seen to be protecting them.
• Maybe they have skills which we need?
• There are enough refugees in our country. We need to take care of our own people. They should go to the richer countries.
• If we let them in, others will also demand entry.
• They don't speak our language, they have a different religion and they eat different food. They won't integrate.
• They will bring political trouble.

Before the roleplay, think about the following options:

• Will you let all of the refugees across the border?
• Will you let some across the border?
• Will you split them up by age, profession, wealth...?
• Will you do something else instead?

You can use these arguments and any others you can think of:

• It is our right to receive asylum.
• Our children are hungry, you have a moral responsibility to help us.
• We will be killed if we go back.
• We have no money.
• We can't go anywhere else.
• I was a doctor in my home town.
• We only want shelter until it is safe to return.
• Other refugees have been allowed into your country.

Before the roleplay, think about the following options:

• Will you split up if the immigration officers ask you to?
• Will you go home if they try to send you back?

Every year tens of thousands of people have leave their homes and often their countries because of persecution or war. These people become refugees. They nearly always have to move suddenly, leaving their possessions behind, tearing families apart. Many are never able to return to their homes. In 1992 there were almost 19 million refugees in the world.

Most refugees seek safety in a neighbouring country. Others have to travel great distances to find safety. Refugees often arrive at airports and sea ports far from their native land, asking for entry.

In 1951, the United Nations adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. More than half of the countries in the world have agreed with the Convention. They give protection to refugees and agree not to force them to return to their country to risk persecution or death. Article 33 of the Convention says: "No Contracting State shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

This also applies if a government wants to send a refugee to another country from which the refugee might be sent home. Also, governments must hear the claim of a refugee who wants to find safety (seek asylum) in their country. This principle applies to all states, whether or not they are party to the 1951 Convention.

According to the Convention, a refugee is someone who has left their country and is unable to return because of a real fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

The 1951 Convention also says that refugees should be free from discrimination and should receive their full rights in the country where they go to be safe. Also, many articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protect refugees. However, countries disagree about who is a "genuine" refugee. The media and politicians often demand limits on the number of refugees, saying that they cause racial tension, and shortages of housing and jobs.

In recent years the governments of many of the world's richest countries have reduced the number of refugees they allow in, for two reasons. First, air travel has become cheaper, meaning that more refugees from developing countries want to enter developed countries. Second, the world economic downturn has reduced the need for large workforces. This means that refugees who used to come as migrant workers now have to apply for refugee status.

To justify restrictions on refugees, rich countries often say that refugees are not victims of oppression, but just want a better standard of living. They call them "economic migrants". To protect the rights of refugees the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) based in Geneva, was established by the UN General Assembly on 14 December 1950.

Governments often argue that refugee's fears are exaggerated or untrue. Refugees are protected from this argument by organisations who use evidence of human rights violations in the refugee's country to persuade the government to let them apply for asylum.