We just want our children: Anguish of New Scots families split by war and Home Office

Ali, who’d built up a supermarket business in Damascus, suffered life-changing injuries, but the harm caused to Lamis came later due to the intense stress, anxiety and even guilt set off by the chain of events that followed the blast – a journey across borders that would split her family across three nations and thousands of miles.

When the Syrian couple came to Scotland four years ago after the UN picked them and their teenage son Ahmad for the UK’s Syrian refugee scheme, they did so on the basis that they’d been assured their other son and daughter would be able to follow with their young children.

But like so many refugees in the UK, they’re still waiting for a family reunion that looks increasingly hard to achieve as refugee flights stay paused, and the Home Office sends out ever more hostile messaging on migration.

That’s despite repeated calls from expert agencies to change the rules on lawful movement to stem the number of unauthorised English Channel crossings currently driving much of the anti-migrant rhetoric.

Families in safety in Scotland say the reality of living here while unable to help the loved ones enduring poverty, prejudice and even violence overseas is driving them into mental and physical ill health.

Lamis’s children and their families are stuck in Jordan and Lebanon, where they rely on aid to eat. Lamis has been trying to bring her family back together for years and, in desperation, she tried to end her life. Her family say that’s a direct result of the enforced separation they are enduring and medics agree.

At home in Paisley, she’s receiving expert care from the NHS emergency psychiatric team while Ali, who can no longer work due to his leg, eye and nerve injuries, and 19-year-old barber Ahmad do what they can to support her.

“Without my kids, it doesn’t matter how I’m living,” Lamis says. “We had a normal life, just like anyone else. All I want is to be with my kids.”

There was some hope for families like Lamis’s last year through the Family Reunion Bill proposed by Scotland’s Angus MacNeil MP, which sought to broaden the rules around reunification.

While “compassionate” arguments can be made in some circumstances, the only family members explicitly allowed to join adult refugees in the UK under current guidelines are their spouse or partner and dependent children under the age of 18. But while this achieved cross-party and popular support through the Families Together Coalition, which had the backing of stars such as actors Patrick Stewart, Gwendoline Christie and Peter Capaldi, December’s snap General Election ended its progress through parliament.

But the issues haven’t gone away – this week Lamis received another refusal notice for her son Mohamad, and she is intensely worried about daughter Riham, who requires medical treatment for a mass found in her breast.

IN Perth, former property trader Abdul Hai Yassin knows how she feels.

His son is stuck in Lebanon, where he has been robbed and beaten as national, religious and political tensions between Syrians and Lebanese people, Sunni and Shia Muslims and those for and against the Assad regime continue.

Abdul, who has been in Scotland for four-and-a-half years, tells how his baker son Ahmad was recently taken by militia from a checkpoint and beaten so badly he thought he would die. He bears an injury to his leg from a separate incident where a corrosive substance was thrown on his leg.

Meanwhile, Ahmad’s wife Rouqiya and their children Khalid and Omar are missing. They were last known to be attempting to cross to Syria to retrieve documents they hoped would help convince UK authorities to allow them access, but they’ve not been heard from since.

“I’m like a person who has swallowed a knife,” Abdul says. “If I speak, I will injure my throat, if I force it down I will injure my stomach.

“I’m suffering here, I can’t do anything for my son and my grandchildren. I’m scared to show my suffering. I try to hide my tears because I don’t want to show I’m weak.”

His wife Rohiya has developed a range of medical problems he believes are linked to the separation. “We are worried we will close our eyes and never see him again,” Abdul says. “We are worried we will die without ever seeing him.”

In Kirkintilloch, Nidal Al Naboulissi and wife Amnah are “worried sick” about their daughter Batoul, who is stranded in Lebanon with their two grandchildren.

The country, still in a state of emergency after the devastating Port of Beirut explosion, is currently said to be “even more hostile” towards Syrians than before.

But resettlement flights for even those selected for the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Scheme remain on hold. How long that will last, we still don’t know.

The Sunday National has previously highlighted the stories of families marooned in Lebanon with addresses to go to in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Liverpool, but with no way to reach these.

Last week reports emerged that 11 Syrian men had been taken by the Home Office to Madrid in a removal to the first European country they are known to have passed through on their route to the UK.

The group included individuals with family members living in the UK. Officials said that deportation had been “carefully worked through”.

While MacNeil’s bill is no longer active, the Families Together Coalition is still campaigning. It includes Amnesty International, the British Red Cross, United Nations agency UNHCR and Oxfam, amongst others.

Jamie Livingstone, head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “Stories like these are an important reminder that the UK Government should be doing its fair share for people fleeing conflict and persecution by providing adequate safe and legal routes for refugees to reach the UK and allowing more refugee families to be reunited in safety here.

“The UK’s resettlement operations, which were paused due to the pandemic, should also be urgently restarted.”

All three of the families contacted for this article are represented by Glasgow solicitors Rea Law.

Usman Aslam, who is handling their cases, says the rules are “perverse”, and though he has won difficult reunion cases in the past, the “ripple effect” of this means more refugees trust the firm to act for them, regardless of how complex the circumstances.

“It is very difficult to advise these refugees on how difficult the cases are but it creates a very obscure sense of hope for these vulnerable people,” he says. “This can be resolved by the law being slightly amended and the Home Office properly applying their policy.

“It is regrettable that the Family Reunion Bill has just been forgotten about. The Tories have done everything to try and stop this progressing. A small change in the rules could save so much heartache.

“The families waiting abroad may not make it until tomorrow if they are in Syria because of the war, or are in Lebanon, which is an extremely hostile environment. Notwithstanding the current state of emergency in Lebanon, we must understand one thing – Lebanon is about an eight of the size of Scotland, with millions of refugees. The conditions for Syrians are life-threatening. I visited Syrian refugee camps in 2018 and had first-hand experience of the reality there.

“I would ask readers to look the families in this article and the heartache that they are going through. I am calling on MPs and MSPs to join us and complete what was already a very positive change in the Family Reunion Bill.

“Imagine waiting for that call, as these families are, to say a bomb has killed your son, daughter, mother, father or grandchild.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government provides a safe and legal route to bring families together through its refugee family reunion policy and we have granted over 29,000 visas in the last five years.

“The policy allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they were part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country.

“In addition, the UK resettles more refugees than any other country in Europe and we are in the top five countries worldwide.”