An asylum seeker who fled the Syrian civil war to find refuge in Britain is begging the Home Office to rule on his case after nearly three years of waiting.

Ahmad Alshami (not his real name), 31, had to leave his pregnant wife behind to make the perilous journey to the UK and has never held his now two-year-old son in his arms.

Forbidden from working and with no passport to travel, he told The Argus he feels like a prisoner in his brother’s Portslade home.

He is desperate to be reunited with his family, begin his life anew and ply his trade as a trained and qualified electrician here in the UK.

It comes as new Home Secretary Sajid Javid finds himself under intense pressure to improve the way his department deals with immigrants in the aftermath of the Windrush scandal which led to the resignation of his predecessor, Hastings MP Amber Rudd.

Ahmad told The Argus he spent six months imprisoned by the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, after being arrested at a political demonstration.

He was tortured and locked in a cell with a corpse. When he closes his eyes he gets flashbacks of the inescapable stench of the decomposing human body.

With help from gangs of illegal people traffickers, who he paid to get him across international borders, he fled to be with family in the UK.

But after nearly three years of bureaucratic delays and broken promises he says he now feels hopeless, helpless and depressed.

Repeatedly he has been promised a decision date which is then missed by the Home Office.

When he calls his wife in Syria, he feels humiliated, he says, by having to pass on news of each delay and disappointment.

Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, has made repeated representations on Ahmad’s behalf, most recently to Immigration minister Caroline Noakes.

But he has received only apologies and further promises.

He said: “This is a great opportunity to press the reset button and create a Home Office which ensures that refugees and people seeking asylum are treated with respect and humanity.”

“Mr Alshami fled to Britain after experiencing not only the terror of his war-torn homeland but from personal experiences of torture.

“Suffering from PTSD, nightmares and flashbacks, Mr Alshami has experienced a frightening deterioration in his mental health due to the worry of not knowing whether he will be deported or not.

“I am appalled that whilst Mr Alshami has fled his torturers he remains tormented by his own thoughts, intensified by the constant threat of deportation by the UK Government.

“I’m calling on Mr Javid to get a grip on his new department and to set the tone where refugees are treated fairly and humanely.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “We are in contact with Mr Alshami about his case.

“We have apologised for the delay and explained that a decision will be taken as soon as possible.”

Delays leave him helpless, homeless and depressed

At his home just outside Damascus, Ahmad Alshami was building a life for himself and his family.

A qualified electrician, he worked hard supporting his wife and widowed mother.

In 2013 the country’s vicious civil war, which has now taken more than 100,000 civilian lives, started to intensify in the wake of the Arab Spring two years previously.

That summer, at the age of 26, he attended an anti-war demonstration and was arrested and imprisoned for six months.

He does not like to speak of the torture he endured but to this day he suffers flashbacks, and hallucinations of the stench of death and decay from being locked in a cell with a corpse.

He was arrested again in the summer of 2015.

Scarred by his experience at the hands of the regime and terrified of being conscripted into an army suffering heavy military losses, he made the decision to flee to Britain.

His older brothers, naturalised British citizens, have lived here for decades.

It meant leaving behind his wife, by then three months pregnant, but he was hopeful of starting a new life here in the UK.

Once his asylum application had been approved she and his newborn son would be entitled to come and join him.

He slipped across the Syrian/Turkish border on foot near Aleppo, and made his way to the Mediterranean coast where he paid people traffickers £1,000 to smuggle him to Greece in a 15ft boat with 50 other refugees.

From Greece he made his way through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria before heading north through France to the Jungle refugee camp in Calais.

By 2015 criminal gangs already controlled access from the camp to the neighbouring lorry park.

They charged would-be migrants thousands of euros to access the vehicles in which the refugees could attempt to smuggle themselves into the UK and dealt out vicious punishment beatings and broken legs to those who tried to sneak through on their own and circumvent the gangs’ monopoly.

Ahmad paid £3,000 for safe passage to the UK, where he presented himself as an asylum seeker on August 4, 2015.

But his troubles were far from over.

Refugees are expected to claim asylum in the first safe country that they come to and initially consideration of his case centred on whether it should be considered by Austria.

But after representations on his behalf and due in part to his family ties to the UK, eventually the UK accepted responsibility for his asylum claim on August 23, 2016.

At that point he had been living in his brother’s home in Portslade for a year. He is entitled to access the NHS, but cannot travel overseas, and cannot work.

He has been issued with an ID card across which is stamped in red forbidden from taking employment.

He said: “My life is stopped. I want it to start again, I want to work.

“I feel very depressed. I have lost my hair, I have difficulty with my memory and my concentration.

“I have no target in my life. It is like a prison.

“I am not allowed to study, I am not allowed to do anything. If I want to go out I must ask my brother for £5 for a bus ticket. I take no money from the Government,”

He was interviewed about his claim on April 6, 2017, but another year on is still waiting for a decision.

He said: “They always say something they don’t do. For example, ‘we’re going to give you the decision within six months’  and after that no one gives me the decision.

“Then they say three months, and nothing happens. 

“Now they have given me another three months to wait.”
The UK does not admit dependants while a case is being considered, so

Ahmad has never held his infant son who was born in early 2016. 

A photo of the little boy, with smiling face and a mop of thick dark hair, is the backdrop image on his phone.

He told the Argus: “I cannot explain to you how it feels, that I have never held my son.

”It is more than heartbreaking.”


MP gets apology and more promises 

Last month Peter Kyle urged Immigration Minister Caroline Noakes to put an end to the limbo in which Mr Alshami is being forced to live.

He wrote: “Mr Alshami is a Syrian national who is fleeing not only the terrors of his war-torn homeland, but personal experiences of torture as well.

“He came to the UK in search of refuge.

“He is tormented by PTSD, olfactory hallucinations, nightmares and flashbacks.

“He is deeply concerned for his family’s safety and desperate to be reunited with them.

“In spite of this, almost two years since my first intervention, I am still told on a regular basis by UK Visas and Immigration that my constituent’s case remains ‘under consideration’.

“I am appalled a refugee can be treated this way. Mr Alshami has fled his torturers yet he remains tormented by his own thoughts; intensified by the constant threat of deportation that hangs over him.

“It is quite simply unacceptable to keep a victim of torture waiting for a Home Office decision this long.”

The reply he received, from one of the minister’s aides, acknowledged the UK accepted responsibility for Mr Alshami’s asylum claim after a year, on August 23, 2016.

It apologised for the delays and promised “every effort” would be made to reach a decision in the following three months.