Working refugees
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2017
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How can refugees improve their lot? There are about 65 million displaced people in the world, according to the UN. And as many flee their places of birth for the long term, they need work to support themselves and for a sense of purpose.
The BBC's Jane Wakefield talks to urban refugee worker Robert Hakiza, who escaped violence in Congo to live in Kampala, Uganda. She also hears about an innovative new system to find out where you are. Chris Sheldrick explains how What 3 Words, his company, can help.
And Dale Gavlak reports on a new scheme to get Syrian refugees into work from Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp.
(Picture: An immigrant worker cutting paving stone on wood. Credit: Getty.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me Jane Wakefield at the TED Global Conference in Tanzania. |
| 0:11.0 | Today we are asking how refugees across the globe can improve their economic prospects. |
| 0:16.5 | We have an innovation hub. We have created this space. We are training refugees in |
| 0:22.3 | basically computer, social media because we want them also to have access to information. |
| 0:27.3 | And why giving people an address matters. When you fill out a bank account form, you have to put |
| 0:32.0 | an address or a credit card form. If you register with your local utility company, you need |
| 0:36.4 | to give them an address. |
| 0:42.2 | So all of these basic things are either impossible or a huge, huge struggle for a lot of people. |
| 0:44.1 | That's all in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:53.4 | It's estimated that there are over 65 million displaced people in the world, according to the UN. |
| 0:58.6 | To put that in context, that's a number almost identical to the population of the UK. |
| 1:10.5 | For many refugees who have fled war zones and disasters to begin a new life, hopes of building a new economic future are often hindered by a lack of citizenship and inability to work legally. |
| 1:13.1 | Well, here at the TED Global Conference in Tanzania, |
| 1:16.3 | I met one man who has experienced life as a refugee, |
| 1:20.8 | escaping his homeland of Congo due to violence and settling in Uganda. |
| 1:25.0 | He now focuses on urban refugees and how to equip new arrivals with the tools they need for a profitable future. |
| 1:27.9 | My name is Robat Robert, Robert Akiza. |
| 1:30.8 | I'm originally from Congo. |
| 1:33.4 | I live in Uganda for the last nine years as a refugee, |
| 1:37.4 | urban refugees, because I live in Kampala, |
| 1:40.5 | because of war and conflicts there. |
| 1:44.9 | In Kampala, just a few months after, |
... |
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