Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad on his new life in Brixton after Exodus to Europe

On Wednesday night he eloquently shared his story of escape in the BBC documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe
Hassan Akkad: “I love London. It feels like home but we won’t be here for ever. We will return to Syria one day.”
BBC

Hassan Akkad knows exactly the date he arrived in London. “I have been in the UK since September 27, 2015,” he tells me, precisely. “I was worried. I’d never been to Europe — I’d never been to England before. But I have made so many friends. I love it here.”

Hassan is a Syrian refugee. He left his home town of Damascus in 2012. There, he was an English teacher in a high school, and also worked as a photographer; he fled after being imprisoned and tortured by the Assad regime. And on Wednesday night he eloquently shared his story of escape in the BBC documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe.

The film ends with shots of itinerant refugees, some still waiting for solace, Hassan providing a voiceover. “Anyone could be a refugee,” he observes. “It’s just something that happens to you.” There is shaky footage of Hassan inside a plane bound for the UK as it takes off. Although his relief is palpable, we are not told what happens to Hassan.

Talking yesterday from Brixton, where he now lives, Hassan explains how he felt at that moment: “I started crying,” he says. “It was one of the happiest moments of my life. There was this English couple sitting next to me and the guy asked, ‘Why are you crying?’ and I didn’t want to tell him. So I said, ‘I just said goodbye to my family’ and he said, ‘How old are you? Why would you cry?’” He laughs. “I thought, ‘Leave me alone! You don’t know!’”

Hassan is now living with a family in Brixton, in their spare room. Having found the safety and stability he sought, he has become a campaigner, travelling to universities to tell his story. “I have a talk every single day,” he says. When he isn’t talking, he works with refugee charities in London. “I volunteer for Help Refugees — sending donations. And I also volunteer as an interpreter for Safe Passage, the people who get unaccompanied children from Calais to here.” He worked in an Oxfam charity shop for a while and is also working part-time with a photographer on Oxford Street.

It is a world away from his existence back home in Damascus. “Going on protests in Syria was like going on a suicide mission,” he says. Once, he was beaten for 20 minutes with iron poles. He threw his hands across his face (“It was all I thought about: I don’t want to lose my face”) and the forces broke both his arms and two of his ribs. His left leg was badly damaged. He ultimately fled, first staying in the Middle East, assuming he’d be able to return to Syria, before realising this was impossible. He travelled towards Turkey, with Europe in his sights.

After a traumatic dinghy crossing to Greece — the “lowest moment of the entire experience”— he spent two months in the Jungle, the makeshift refugee camp in Calais, each night attempting unsuccessfully to swim the short distance from the shore onto the ferries that cross the Channel.

At one point he paid £3,500 for a fake Czech passport and an easyJet ticket and made it to the gate before being summoned back by border officials. He finally made it to the UK, flying from Brussels to Heathrow on a counterfeit Bulgarian passport.

At Heathrow, he tells me, he was offered food and medical help; he called a volunteer he met in the Jungle who let him stay with her for a while.

Portraits of refugees in the first moment they felt free

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The rest of his family have left Syria but remain in the Middle East. He misses them but says Skype is near miraculous. “As a typical Arab family, we lived in the same house,” he says. “No one moved out. For us to be dispersed is really hard.” They’re proud of him for telling his story and helping other displaced people.

Six months after arriving in London he was granted right to remain, which means he can now stay for five years. “My heart feels at ease now,” he says. “I can settle down.” He “loves” London. “It definitely feels like home,” he continues. “It’s very diverse — you meet people from every corner of the world.” Though he was worried after Brexit. “I obviously didn’t want Britain to leave the European Union. [And] after Brexit, it seemed like one of the fallouts was the rise of racial attacks.”

He was disturbed by some of the imagery used during the Brexit campaign. “What really bothered me was when the Leave campaign started using posters of refugees in Croatia,” he says. “I’ve experienced that — I’ve stood in that queue. For me to get here and then see that happening here… I was very disappointed. I didn’t expect that any politician here in Europe would do such a thing. It was horrendous.”

Indeed, his story is quiet testament to the spirit of those who seek asylum here. “I want to pay my tax,” he says. “I want to make money, I want to learn. That’s the thing about Syrians — we don’t like to do nothing, we want to be part of any society that we’re in.”

What now? He hopes to get a Masters degree in either conflict resolution or development. “Because at some point we’re going to go back home. We’re not going to be here for ever. We’re going to rebuild a country that has been destroyed.”

Exodus is on bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Follow Phoebe Luckhurst on Twitter: @phoebeluckhurst

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