From a war zone to life as a refugee in Stratford

Hussein Mahmoud, 32, eventually settled in Stratford after his own country was ripped apart by war. He currently lives with his wife, Siwar Hamdoush, 28, and the couple’s seven-week-old daughter, Delara Mahmoud.

He’s started a new life now but the horrors that forced him to flee his own country will be exactly the same as those faced by Ukrainians today.

“When the Syrian crisis began in 2011, I was a student at Aleppo University, living in a small town east of Aleppo with my parents and siblings,” Hussein said. “At first, the fighting seemed so far away, but when the fights reached the region where we were living, we were forced to flee the town and return to our hometown in north-eastern Syria.”

While he was able to return to Aleppo to continue his studies between 2012 to 2015, basic services like electricity, water and public transport were, in his words, “extremely challenging.”

“Without any service we had to walk for miles to get some water, which was pumped from wells using generators, and there were very few food sources because the city was surrounded by fighting,” said Hussein.

“Missiles and rockets were constantly dropping around us, and thankfully for me, I was unhurt. As a result of these bombs, I observed several incidences of civilian death and killing. I finished my course in December 2015, and I had the option of staying in Syria, which meant I had to join the military - which is mandatory for men - or leaving Syria as soon as possible.”

He chose to leave and decided to go to Turkey and travelled to Afreen, a city on the Syrian-Turkish border where hundreds of Syrian refugees passed through every day.

“After several attempts, I was able to cross the border with a few Syrian migrants and make my way to Istanbul, where I had some friends. I was there for six months. I was working at a clothing factory, and the conditions of life and work for Syrian refugees were extremely terrible due to the exploitation of refugees by employers and companies.

“In that time and because of the frequent ISIS attacks on Kurdish areas, as well as kidnapping and killing citizens, my family was forced to evacuate and seek refuge in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.”.

In June 2016, Hussein made the decision to go to Kurdistan to live with his family. In the same year, the family applied to the United Nations programme to resettle Syrian refugees, and they were chosen to be placed in the UK.

“We flew to the UK in March 2019 after nearly three years of procedure. The programme placed us in Stratford with another three Syrian families. When we came, everything was ready for us, and there were support workers to assist us in integrating into society. Now I live with my wife and our new baby. I work part-time at the One Stop Shop and I am studying electrical engineering course at Rugby College.

“My wife is a GCSE student at Warwickshire College. We are really pleased here because everyone is lovely and helpful to us, and it is a safe and great environment for our kid to grow up. We feel that this is our home, and we will not return to Syria anytime soon.

“We have a lot of family and friend members remaining in Syria, and we communicate to them every day. We wish them the best of luck.”

The tragedy in Ukraine has acted as a grim mirror of what he and thousands of other Syrians faced when they fled death and destruction.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine and I watched Ukrainian refugees leaving their country, all the scenes of war we had seen in Syria came flooding back to me. I wish for Ukraine to live in peace and be free of conflicts that destroy countries and kill innocent people. The nicest thing about the United Kingdom is its ethnic variety, which allows people of all races to live together in peace and respect. I hope that Syria, and all other countries where there is violence, will be safe and that people will be able to live in peace,” Hussein said.