This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/21/syrian-teenagers-brother-looking-forward-to-reunion-after-legal-victory
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Syrian teenager's brother looking forward to reunion after legal victory | Syrian teenager's brother looking forward to reunion after legal victory |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The brother of a Syrian teenager, due to be reunited with his family in London after winning a landmark legal case that allows him to live in Britain while his asylum claim is considered, has said he is “relieved and thankful” and looking forward to seeing him. | The brother of a Syrian teenager, due to be reunited with his family in London after winning a landmark legal case that allows him to live in Britain while his asylum claim is considered, has said he is “relieved and thankful” and looking forward to seeing him. |
| The teenager will arrive in London via the Eurostar from the Jungle camp in Calais, along with three other Syrians, after a court ruled on Wednesday that the Home Office was wrong to refuse to consider their asylum applications. The four, including another teenager, a 17-year-old and his brother, aged 26, who has mental health problems are all said to be traumatised by their experiences in their homeland. | The teenager will arrive in London via the Eurostar from the Jungle camp in Calais, along with three other Syrians, after a court ruled on Wednesday that the Home Office was wrong to refuse to consider their asylum applications. The four, including another teenager, a 17-year-old and his brother, aged 26, who has mental health problems are all said to be traumatised by their experiences in their homeland. |
| Ahmed, who is not using his real name to protect his brother’s identity and who fled Syria for the UK with his family in 2014, said he and his wife would act as a mother and father to his younger brother. | Ahmed, who is not using his real name to protect his brother’s identity and who fled Syria for the UK with his family in 2014, said he and his wife would act as a mother and father to his younger brother. |
| The father of one said: “I am relieved and thankful that I will be able to hold my brother, look after him and care for him. I am pleased that the British legal system has recognised that the most vulnerable need help. | The father of one said: “I am relieved and thankful that I will be able to hold my brother, look after him and care for him. I am pleased that the British legal system has recognised that the most vulnerable need help. |
| “I am learning English, I will contribute to British society and I will help my brother to do the same. I thank everyone for their support and solidarity. War is a terrible thing for anyone to endure, but particularly for children and young people. No one should have to experience the horrors of war.” | |
| Laura Griffiths, a volunteer with the campaigning group Citizens UK, who is currently with the Syrians in Calais, said they had all showered and were eating a hot meal. She said: “They have been ready for this day for four months. They told me they had no words to describe how good they feel. They are are looking forward to that hug, to being with their families.” | Laura Griffiths, a volunteer with the campaigning group Citizens UK, who is currently with the Syrians in Calais, said they had all showered and were eating a hot meal. She said: “They have been ready for this day for four months. They told me they had no words to describe how good they feel. They are are looking forward to that hug, to being with their families.” |
| Griffiths said the Syrians would be met by their families off the train. | Griffiths said the Syrians would be met by their families off the train. |
| The four had applied for the British government to take charge of their asylum claims that would allow them to live in the country. But the Home Office rejected their applications under the ‘Dublin regulation’ that would only allow an asylum seeker in Calais to join family in Britain if they had already applied for asylum in France and there was an official request from Paris for them to join relatives. | |
| However, in a judicial review this week, lawyers for Citizens UK successfully argued that the Dublin system was not working. The immigration and asylum tribunal judges said they should be allowed to join their relatives while their asylum claims were being considered by the Home Office. Citizens UK says at least 250 unaccompanied minors are among the 5,000 people who live in the Calais camp. | |
| Peter Hill, the bishop of Barking, said: “This is a fantastic outcome for vulnerable child refugees in Calais who have a legal right to be reunited with their loved ones here in the UK. | |
| “Hopefully it puts an end to the unjust and damaging inaction of both the British and French governments who have prevaricated while young people have been forced to survive hand to mouth in the camps or put their lives into the hands of the people traffickers. Sadly, it has been too late for some.” | |
| In a written statement, Ahmed spoke of the trauma suffered by his brother in Syria, where he could no longer attend school because of bombing. He said: “He has been under a lot of pressure. He has suffered a lot, him and others, after all he is a child and he will not be able to stand more than what he has already stood. There was no child that would bear to what this child saw.” His brother had seen death with his own eyes. | |
| He said his brother’s journey out of Syria, via a people smuggler, had been difficult and bewildering and that he found the conditions intolerable when he got to Calais. | |
| Ahmed said: “Sometimes he says to me, ‘If I stayed in Syria under the bombings and the war it would be better than the life here in the camp the Jungle, in the cold, the illness, in a very difficult situation’. | |
| “He was calling me and telling me for example, ‘I can’t swim, I cannot venture, I don’t know how to hide under the lorries as others do’, hiding themselves between the wheels or going inside the lorries and hiding within the merchandise, in the fridges as he saw other people.” | “He was calling me and telling me for example, ‘I can’t swim, I cannot venture, I don’t know how to hide under the lorries as others do’, hiding themselves between the wheels or going inside the lorries and hiding within the merchandise, in the fridges as he saw other people.” |
| Ahmed said he managed to persuade his brother to be patient and try legal routes to get to safety in the UK. | Ahmed said he managed to persuade his brother to be patient and try legal routes to get to safety in the UK. |
| This month, a 15-year-old Afghan boy, Masud, suffocated to death on the back of a lorry travelling from Dunkirk to the UK. Masud, whose sister lives in the UK, had told friends in the camp he could not wait any longer. | |