SYRIAN VOICES – Refugee Perspectives on life in the UK

ABDURAHMAN is 24 and comes from Aleppo. He now lives in North London. Abdurahman was born and raised in Aleppo. He was obliged to leave school and work full time from the age of 11 in a joiner’s shop, suffering serious work place injury. He later recounts experiences of the bombings in Aleppo, the injury and death of numerous family and friends - including his father and his best friend, tragically retrieved from the ruins of a building after a frantic 15 day search. Abdurahman’s family managed to escape to Turkey, where he experienced discrimination and gruelling hours of work in factories. The final sections of the interview relate to the family’s journey to England under a government resettlement programme, the wonder and strangeness of life in the UK, voluntary work, experiences of lockdown and personal hopes and dreams for the future. Abdurahman’s story is representative of that of many underprivileged children and youths in Syria during the war. His perceptions of his own childhood and those of UK children is deeply perceptive and moving. Most of all, it is full of hope and aspirations for a new life in the UK.