Family who fled Isis left in limbo with disabled son for three years despite being granted UK relocation
A Syrian family who fled Isis and were accepted for UK resettlement are struggling to support their young epileptic son as they wait years for relocation.
The family have been waiting over three years to be brought to the UK and are running out of money to buy medication for their seven-year-old, who has been unable to receive proper hospital care in Iraq.
The UK government accepted the family’s application for help in December 2019 under the UK Resettlement Scheme, a relocation programme for vulnerable refugees who have been referred by the UN.
But, more than three years on, they are still waiting to be brought to Britain.
Speaking to The Independent from their home in Erbil, Iraq, the 40-year-old father, Yawar, described how the agonising wait was affecting his ill son. “My eldest son needs special drugs because of his epilepsy and it is a struggle to get this medication, but I would do anything I can for my child.
“The medication is not controlling his epileptic bouts completely and for the past two days we haven’t gotten any sleep, neither he nor us. The last time we saw the doctor he increased my son’s dosage to the highest possible and said that if that doesn’t work then there is nothing else for him. His epilepsy is still not controlled.”
His eldest son is not able to communicate with other children and also suffers from hydrocephalus, a condition in which fluid accumulates in the brain and causes delayed development. The youngest son, who is four-years-old, has also had problems with his development and suffers from social isolation, lawyers aiding the family have said.
Yawar and his wife fled Syria in 2014 after Isis attacked his hometown city of Kobani in northern Syria. The success of Isis in the region generated a wave of some 400,000 refugees into Turkey. His two sons were born after the couple fled to Iraq.
Launched in 2020, the UK’s Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) initially aimed to bring around 5,000 vulnerable refugees to Britain in its first year from countries such as Syria and Sudan.
However, the Home Office scrapped the target and said that the numbers would be “kept under review”. Since 2020, only 2,407 people have been relocated and many are forced to wait years before they are moved.
According to a report by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the UK has not provided the agency with a quota for UKRS since 2020 and the agency has been told to restrict any new referrals. Any refugee referrals have been limited to “highly exceptional cases on an ad-hoc basis, amounting to a handful per year”.
The International Organisation for Migration has carried out an assessment of the family’s needs, and told the UK government that they would need a home without stairs and wheelchair access. The Home Office has told the Syrian family that they did not have any suitable accommodation for them to live in the UK.
In June 2021, NHS England assessed the family’s case and told the government that the eldest son would also need treatment at a regional paediatric neurosciences/surgery centre.
Lawyers supporting the family have told the Home Office that Iraq’s state-run hospitals are “deeply inadequate and the only proper support available is at private hospitals, which [our client] cannot afford”. They added that even the private hospitals in Iraq cannot treat hydrocephalus.
Amid the worsening security situation in the Middle East, Iran sent missiles into Erbil, Iraq this week, near to where the family are living. On hearing the missile attacks, Yawar was forced to flee with his family to the street. He said: “It was very scary in the middle of the night for children to live in this fear”.
He and his family have now been able to return home. He added that, while he works during the day at a market, he struggles to afford his son’s medication and has got into debt trying to pay the family’s bills.
His 33-year-old wife is also struggling with her mental health as she is left to look after their two sons. He added: “When I first received the news that my application was accepted I was over the moon because I just wanted my children to have a better life, but now with the delays I am gradually feeling frustrated as the process is prolonged. I just want my children to get the treatment they need, for them to go to school, and for them to live a normal life like other children.”
Neither of his children are able to go to school and his family are shunned by others when they take their disabled son outside the house, he said. “When we go out, people look at us in a strange way. It just makes us feel very bad. They look at our children because of how they behave. There is not much acceptance of disability”.
In October 2022, officials at the Home Office told the family’s lawyers that they were “aware of the urgent nature of this case” and that they would “continue to take steps to source suitable accommodation” for the family.
