8 April 2016
Having worked in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon for more than thirty years, MAP has great experience in supporting Palestinians living there to overcome challenging obstacles to accessing healthcare. Our campaign for the rights of Palestinian refugees from Syria has also brought us into contact with Palestinians who are struggling to find safe havens and healthcare in the Middle East, across Europe and in the UK. Every aspect of this journey places Palestinians in the midst of a legal and political environment that is closing doors for them at every turn.
Last week we highlighted the case of Ahmad Younes, a Palestinian from Yarmouk camp in Syria. Ahmad has been living in the UK since October 2015 and his mother, sister and niece have been here for over a year and a half. Ahmad’s sister and niece have been granted asylum on the basis of having Syrian nationality by marriage, but Ahmad and his mother are still waiting. Last Friday we had the pleasure of meeting Ahmad and his family in their flat in Stockport, spending the afternoon chatting with them and eating his mother's home-cooked Palestinian food. Five months ago Ahmad was in the infamous Calais ‘jungle’ camp and just over two years ago they were all still living in the midst of war in Syria.
They fled with only the clothes on their backs and some family photos, taking boats, trains, hiding in refrigerated trucks and walking for days without food or water. They were beaten by the police of several nations, swindled by gangs and smugglers and squeezed into every imaginable compartment in a vehicle by people who clearly had no thought for their well-being.
Ahmad's six-year-old niece told us about the boat journey she took with her mother and grandmother from Turkey to Italy, recounting in excellent English (with a Stockport accent) how they'd travelled for 12 days by boat, eating only mouldy bread and with very little water. Ahmad recounted how the first time any official showed them kindness for almost two years was when the British police opened the back doors of the lorry in Calais, welcomed them all to France and made them cups of tea.
Ahmad eventually made it to the UK to be with his sister, mother and niece, but remaining in safety here is not certain. After a year and a half of waiting, his mother still receives letters every few weeks saying a decision on her case has been further delayed (the same letter each time).
MAP have been working to help overcome the obstacles to health and dignity that people face solely on the basis of being Palestinian - in Lebanon and Palestine - for over three decades. But we also recognise that Palestinians can face obstacles outside of these contexts. Ahmad is determined that his efforts to raise this issue in the UK will help other Palestinians from Syria, but not exclusively from Syria, to access safety and medical services.
Over the coming weeks and months we will be helping to publish the story of Ahmad and his family to demonstrate to you, our supporters, and to policymakers, why ensuring Palestinians from Syria have access to safe-havens and essential services is so important.
When he was in Calais, Ahmad made the sign you can see at the top of this page. With the new EU-Turkey deal, Ahmad and his family face deportation to Turkey if they are not granted asylum in the UK. Hundreds of people have already been deported under this agreement in the past few days. If that happens no one could guess where they would end up, but it wouldn't be Palestine.
Please sign our petition to call for the protection of Palestinian refugees from Syria.
Featured image: The sign that Ahmad hung from a caravan in Calais