Anas’ Story

First of all let me introduce myself, my name is Anas, I am an Arabic tongue, Syrian nationality. I was born and raised in a city called Damascus which is the capital of Syria and the oldest occupied capital in the world, with a population of six million (before a sad regime killed and displaced half of us). Prior to this it was a very active city centre 24 hours a day; it is now converted to a city of death, and this is the only achievement our president has managed since he took the presidency as a legacy from his father.

Unfortunately, I had to leave that amazing city, to survive with my life, and that was the hardest decision I ever made, because it is very hard to be in a situation to choose either to kill innocent people or to be killed. I was lucky enough to have a chance to come to Great Britain with an airplane, briefing on myself the crossing of the Aegean sea, that became a cemetery of asylum seekers, and saving myself from passing European countries from East to west by walking most of the time and being an easy victim for human trafficking.

To be honest I didn’t expect to be treated the way I did when I arrived at the airport, since I didn’t have any documentation and the way they talked to me was amazing and made me feel what human being is. And the most thing I feel lucky about all of my journey, is to be located in Lancaster and to meet these awesome people who raised my moral and hope of this life to the top of it. The way they welcomed me and the help they provided without caring about the difference of religion or taking in mind anything else, but being a human, is something I will never forget for all of my life, wherever I will live later, and I will try my best to be to be as good as they are and to help people who need help when I can do as they did with me.

At the end, I want to express me gratitude and thankfulness to the society of Lancaster and Morecambe City of Sanctuary, to everyone who supported us directly or through the society, and to all the people of Lancaster who treated me as Lancastarian.”

Anas