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A girl amid the rubble of Homs.
Syrians fleeing torture and death under Assad tell Oliver Thring of their welcome in Britain
After the weeks of sleep deprivation, the solitary confinement and beatings, after his feet were whipped with braided cables, after they threatened to rape his wife in front of him, to cut out his tongue, to orphan his young son, Yassin describes the moment he finally gave in. “They took me into another room. They lifted my blindfold and showed me a man being electrocuted. I smelt his flesh burning, saw his skin going black, and I said, ‘OK, I confess. Whatever you want me to say, I’ll say it.’”
Yassin’s crime had been to criticise Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Facebook and in conversations with friends. In a 15-page confession, signed with his fingerprints, he said he was an “unloyal dog” who had “spat on the plate that was given to me”.
He is one of a rapidly growing number of Syrian refugees who are coming to Britain to escape horror at home. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, just over 1m Syrians have fled officially, although it says the real figure is likely to be much higher. Many are in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, and now languish in freezing and flooded encampments. In contrast, the 44 industrialised countries — mostly in the EU — received between them fewer than 25,000 Syrians last year.
Before the conflict began two years ago, Britain received fewer than 10 asylum applications a month from Syrians. By last summer, the Border Agency was processing more than 100 claims a month, and current figures are understood to be even higher. Syrians are now the fifth-largest national group seeking asylum in Britain.
Those in Britain are profoundly glad to be here. Raneem, 29, was an architect in Homs. “Seventy-five per cent of my family is dead,” she says. “My house is now some rocks.” Missiles obliterated much of the city in late 2011, but she felt unable to leave without her elderly father. “My son was three years old. All he saw for a year was blood, bullets, tanks, rockets and bodies.” Eventually, her father contracted an infection and, with little treatment available in the battered city, died. Raneem’s sister already lived in Britain; by bribing an official, Raneem was able to get a flight here and rescue her family.
