The British Government should recognize you as a refugee and grant you leave to enter/remain in the United Kingdom if you have a “well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion” under the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 and are not subject to any of the exclusions set out in the Convention.

“Well-founded fear”

It is not enough to say that you fear persecution; you will need to demonstrate that your fear is a real one. You should provide the immigration authorities a written statement containing a detailed account of your experiences in your country of origin, show what has given rise to your fear of persecution, and provide as much documentary evidence or supporting testimony from other people as you can of what you say in your statement.

“Persecution”

The persecution you fear must amount to serious harm - torture, execution, arbitrary imprisonment or other types of severe abuse of your human rights. “Persecution” may be by the state authorities themselves, or by other sections of the population from whom the government is unwilling or unable to protect you.

“Race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular
social group or political opinion”

You will need to show that you would be persecuted because you belong to one of the above categories. Religion might include Muslim in a Christian country or Christian in a Muslim country. “Social group” might include women, gay men and lesbians. “Political opinion” may be your own political opinion or it may be one that is imputed to you, i.e., an opinion you are believed by others to hold or to be indentified with. The government undertakes research on the treatment of individuals in countries throughout the world and will usually consider your claim according to the information it has.