Refugee rule is quite funny, because everyone has their own interpretation of it.
Examples
1. Someone who was kicking ass joins my tribe and now ally claims he is refugee because they want his big cities and builds etc. or they want revenge. Small minded people who cannot see the bigger picture...NBD
If he was kicking your ass he is not a refugee, show me the reports that shows me you were farming him or about to noble him and I will consider it.
2. Another situation my ally is farming one of my NAP members that they themselves have an alliance with, the tribe he is farming are so disorganised they don't react...Shocking
Try link me reports that you are farming your own allies and I will consider you an oath breaker and not to be trusted, I will cancel my alliance with you and admit that "refugee" on trial basis, until he proves to me he is either active player or I kick him for inactivity, you want war bring it...TFD
Cancel alliance with you and cancel NAP with disorganised tribe that cannot see their ally is farming them.
3. A new member joins, I have done due diligence checked with allies etc. Now more than a week later you claim that member is a refugee, but you can only produce reports showing that you have been attacking this member recently while he is in tribe.
Action - You are in violation of NAP (TBC) further attacks on this member are an act of war while he is in tribe.
4. Conversely been manipulated in situation where we are performing merge with another tribe (DK) and while we were allies with them, they were at peace with our enemies.
Now we merge with them and our enemy claims we are at war with them so we are refugees.
4.1 Merger been on the books for more than a month (before attacks).
4.2 If you were our ally and we merge then you should have been at war with our enemy, providing support etc. so there is no bs about us then being refugees.
4.3. Being enemies with someone and being attacked by someone you can prove you have been defending them off and beating them is not a refugee.
Action - Cancel Merger Mark ally as hostile and farm the living crap out of them.
5. Conversely
My tribe is farming 2 tribeless players and one of our NAP partners accepts them and then tries to tell us we can no longer farm or noble them
Action - Cancel NAP, continue farm or noble them. My view here is you have informed the NAP partner who is in breach of refugee rule and you can substantiate your claim with reports.
Definition of refugee should perhaps be clarified even as an unspoken rule -
Someone who is seeking protection, provided there is no break in attacks, refugee status is not indefinite if you have stopped attacking that player.
Someone who is allies or already in merger talks with the tribe they are merging with is not a refugee if they can evidence this, it is for leader of
Set a time limit on how long someone can be a refugee for, refugee is basically a farm or noble target in short term.