Age group: Venturers/DFs

How long it will take: 1 hour

What materials you will need:

The aim of the activity: To explore where and how advertising is creeping into our schools and what its effects might be

What to do:
Split the group in half.

One group are asylum seekers, give each one a basic character e.g. 'Pregnant woman, age 30' 'Doctor, age 40'.

The other group are British citizens who will form the 'jury' which decides which refugees will be granted asylum and which will not. Give them each a basic character too, e.g. 'refugee', 'unemployed man age 28', 'mother of 3 age 37'.

Give the groups about ten minutes to talk amongst themselves and help each other decide what their character is like and what their views would be, also where each asylum seeker is from.

The asylum seekers will go before the panel one at a time to convince them that they should be allowed to stay in Britain. The panel then confers and decides who can stay and who cannot. They must then explain their reasons to the other group.

There could be a maximum 'quota' of refugees that they can let in which is less than the full number.

At the end come out of character and discuss what factors everyone thinks should be taken into account when deciding who gets refugee status.