Schoolchildren will learn about the plight of asylum seekers during this week’s Refugee Week.

And a pub and arts centre will hold a special evening with a talk by one man who had to flee Africa.

The Dover migrant charity Samphire will be working with pupils from primary schools including St Martin’s in Dover and Northbourne Park in Deal to help them learn about the issue for the special week.

The events last from today until Sunday June 26.

Samphire community engagement coordinator Caroline Browne said: “Refugee Week is dedicated to learning about and supporting refugees as well as celebrating the contributions refugees make to society.

“The world is currently facing one of the largest refugee crises in history, with an estimated 60 million people forced to leave their homes around the world.”

The image of the body of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach horrified the world last September.

His family had been fleeing to Greece.

But Ms Brown stressed that migrant lives continue to be lost every week in the Mediterranean Sea.

She added: “The debates surrounding how to deal with the refugee situation have also had a very specific and unwanted local effect, with far-right groups coming to Dover on an almost monthly basis.

“With this in mind, it is more important than ever that we use Refugee Week to learn about the refugee situation and to have a peaceful conversation about how we can support people who are forced to flee.”

Alliances of far-right groups, such as the National Front, have held five anti-immigration demonstrations in Dover since last September.

On January 30, there was rioting in the town as far-right marchers clashed with counter-protesters.

The follow-up protest, on April 2, was tightly controlled by masses of police, and subsequent events have had far lower protester attendance.

Samphire operations manager Christine Oliver said: “Britain took the lead in developing the 1951 Refugee Convention, which gives international legal protection to people fleeing their countries in fear of persecution.

“We should be proud of our history of giving safe haven to vulnerable refugees.”

She said that last year 38,878 people claimed asylum in the UK, and that 86% of the world’s 60 million refugees were hosted by developing countries.

Ms Oliver added: “The lives of people who come to find safety in the UK are not easy. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work and are given only £36.95 a week by the government.

“Research by the Refugee Council suggests that over 9,000 refugees were at some point homeless in the UK last year. This is very different to the experience that many people imagine asylum seekers have.”

The Lighthouse pub and arts centre in The Strand, Walmer, will host a talk by Burundian asylum seeker Noel Urbain as part of a special refugee night on Wednesday.

He will discuss how he fled his country because of the political message of his reggae band Lion Story.

The evening will also have an African drumming workshop.