A Syrian refugee in Britain recounts her arduous asylum experience

Mais, a Syrian refugee in Britain, recounts her arduous asylum experience

“Mays” is a 19-year-old Syrian refugee. The young woman left Syria in September 2014, and headed to Lebanon with her family. She said that emigration to Lebanon as a neighboring country is “a harsh experience that poses many challenges.”
And she continued: “The situation was worse in Lebanon than in Syria, which is suffering from war, and we were not treated well. We faced a lot of racism because the country has a lot of refugees, and the people were not friendly with us, they had their many problems and difficult conditions.”

After a year of searching and waiting, “Mays” and her family moved to Britain by the usual methods after difficulty and loss of money and borrowing, but adjusting to life in Britain was a very difficult experience. We live in the city of Hull, says Mays, and “Hull is a beautiful city. I’m very happy here, but of course there were some challenges.”

Mays continues by saying: “It was difficult to make friends in Britain at first, because we could not communicate with other students.” The British are not social with foreigners except at work, and because of the English language, which was a barrier at first, but soon You can learn English, it is an easy language and close to us in Syria.

The Syrian Mais family in Britain
She said that “some people did not accept us” at first, and she was bullied in high school, which made it more difficult to settle… “One of the British students said I was a terrorist, because I came from Syria, so I was very sad”…
The British are cold in dealing with Western Europeans… but they are more open in general… and in Britain you will find foreigners from all over the world around you, they came as immigrants, most of them from Pakistan and India…

And about the ambition of “Mays” in Britain, she hopes to become a fashion designer, and has already started her second and final academic year at Hull College… She says Britain and the English language make you open to the world… But in other countries we have theaters in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, they feel depressed and isolated…,
Britain is an expensive country to live and a tourist country, and living in luxury requires a lot and a lot of money, so many refugees are isolated over time in weak and poor areas, and do not benefit from the advantages of life in Britain, in terms of work, study and luxury.
In any case, I am happy with life in Britain.. and I learned English, which allowed me to get to know the whole world and communicate with the world