Noor & Zee Documentary photography

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DISPLACED : A story about Syrian refugees. This is Hayat Abdullah, she has been in the UK for 9 months.

This is Imane Bakdaliah, she has been in the UK for 4 years.

‘Do you have any family members who are missing or who have been killed because of the war?’

‘I have a lot of family members who are missing. I witnessed my brother, brother in-law, sister in-law, my two uncles and my dad being executed. When the soldiers came to our house, they lined them all up and executed them in front of me. I hid in a water canister, so they couldn’t see me. I couldn’t scream or cry loudly as I watched my family, the people I care about, be executed, because they would find me and kill me too.’

This is Majd Al Multaji and her daughter Ghazal. They have been in the UK for 4 years.

‘What would you like to say to people in the UK that have a negative view of refugees coming to the UK?’

'I don’t know what to say to them, because we didn’t come to this country out of love for Britain, we didn’t come here because we just liked the idea of staying here. We have been forced to come here because it is not safe in Syria. We tried to live in Lebanon when we first left Syria, but they have no respect for Syrians. They treat animals better than they treat Syrians there. We came here looking for the respect that we deserve, even though it is not our country, we are not here begging, we want to work. All we want is to be respected and we respect others if they do the same to us. We cannot change these people’s views of refugees, they can only change it themselves by seeing what we are doing here. '

This is Maydah Al Saleh. After living in a refugee camp for 2-3 years she came with her family to the UK via Jordan.

This is Aziz, he is 4 years old.

This is Hebah. Her and her Husband Jamal, came to the UK via Lebanon with their children.

This is Families for Freedom

This is Hala. She is a doctor and has 15 family members who are missing.

‘Do you have one memory that provides you with hope and keeps you committed to searching for your family members?’

‘There is a lot of memories, I don’t know which one I can talk about. I used to live in another city from my family, when I went by bus, Tariq would receive me from the station, he would hold my children, take me with his car to his home, he would take my luggage. He would bring and take me to the station, when I went to my city, this memory will not disappear or be forgotten.

With my father in law, I was the first new member of the family, he respected me too much, he would bring nice food for me and the children.’

This is Farizah. She last saw her husband Nasser on 10th September 2013.

‘What happened was that I had to run away because the electricity kept cutting and it was too dangerous there. Then I went to my first refugee country, Egypt, and Nasser came there and he had the bottle with him. I looked at it, and he had decorated it. It looked like a piece of art, ‘I said what have you done to the bottle?’. He said when the electricity would cut in Syria, he would light a candle and put my picture on the bottle. I took another candle, and it started to drip, it was like the candle was crying. He felt like the candle was crying on his behalf, because he missed me and his family, but he was conflicted because he couldn’t leave his responsibilities in Syria.

When he brought the bottle back, he gave it to me and said keep it, I instantly had a really bad feeling. As happy as I was to see the bottle, I had really bad feeling in my heart. I keep the bottle and the book around, so I can see it often.’

‘In the book he gave me as a present, he wrote a 2-page long note in it. The book is called ‘Love, Freedom and individuality’. I don’t want to memorise the words in the note he left me, because when I read it I want it to be as if it was the first time again. Some of the actual book that I have memorised says, ‘your eyes shine like butterfly are being born, lighting up the dark road ahead’.

This is Anana, she is 13 years old and the daughter of Farizah. She last saw her father Nasser when she was 9 years old.

This is Fadwa. Mahmoud her son and her husband are missing. She is one of the founding members of Families for Freedom.

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