Alaa’s story
Asylum Welcome has supported many people who have arrived in the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. This support has been wide-ranging, including advice on immigration, welfare, health and housing. We have also supported individuals and families to access education and employment opportunities, and we have helped to reunite families separated by war. This support makes a huge difference; Alaa’s story is just one example of this.
Alaa is a Syrian pastry chef who arrived in the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. Alaa had originally fled to Jordan, where he had learned how to make sweets and pastries. After arriving in Oxford, Alaa established a pastry business and he also brought his family to the UK.
Alaa told us
“After my brother was killed in Syria in 2015, his wife and five children ended up in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Asylum Welcome helped me to apply for Family Links, to bring them to the UK. Now they live in Reading – they’re settled, happy, doing fine, and starting to live their new lives”
“We are trying to look forward. We cannot change the past but we can do lots of things about the future. We felt very welcomed. Things are going well with us and we are so happy”Alaa
When Asylum Welcome held a Charity Gala in 2020, it was Alaa that catered for the event – making a range of delicious Syrian canapés.