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Roqia Hashimi and her family fled Afghanistan when the country was seized by the Taliban in 2021. Her husband was in the Afghan army and his life was under threat, so the family had no choice but to leave, says Roqia.     She was pregnant at the time, and the family also included a young… Continue reading Roqia

Amanuel is from Eritrea. The date he arrived in the UK – 28 March 2022 – is seared in his memory. He had to leave his country of birth, he says, ‘because of the Government. I cannot say what I want to there, it is not safe. There is, in short, no freedom’.    After… Continue reading Amanuel

Fatima arrived in Penrith in 2017. She and her husband and young son fled the Syrian civil war in 2011 and were refugees in Lebanon until 2017, when they arrived in the UK under the Syrian resettlement scheme.  Her second son was born in Lebanon and she became pregnant with her third child soon after… Continue reading Fatima

Gamal was born in a city in northern Egypt. He excelled in his studies and achieved a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He was working as an engineer at a power station when he got caught up in the protests in his country in 2013.    He was arrested, and spent many months in prison,… Continue reading Gamal

When war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022, Yuliia was forced to flee, crossing the border to Poland with her young son, Mykyta. There, she waited to be matched with an English host under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and in July 2022 she and Mykyta made their way to rural Cumbria.    This… Continue reading Yuliia