Mohamed (not his real name), a Syrian Ph.D. candidate at the University of Manchester Business School feels discriminated against by the Canadian embassy because of his Syrian nationality and refugee status. His visa application to attend the “academy for management conference” on 7 August was denied without explanation or right to appeal.
Fadi Rajjoub, a 41 year-old Syrian refugee, had no choice but to leave his family and children behind in Kurdish areas in Iraq and to flee to the UK in November 2014 when ISIS began to threaten Kurdish civilians, telling them to leave their homes or die. However, Fadi has been refused asylum by the UKVI.
Our member Yasser Aljassem attended the Militant Labour Forum titled 'Open UK borders to the "Calais immigrants" on 22 August. He provided his insight not only as a Syrian asylum seeker but also as someone who was previously in Calais himself. Yasser's presentation was praised by audience members as highly informative.
The Manchester Syrian community protested in Piccadilly Gardens on 19 August. The theme of the protest was 'The Assad Regime, not ISIS, is the Greatest Threat to Syrians'. We affirmed that while ISIS has killed thousands of innocent Syrian civilians and is a terrorist organisation which we condemn, the biggest threat to the civilian population in Syria is the Assad regime.
Manchester's Syrian community will be protesting at Piccadilly Gardens on Wednesday at 18:30 against the Assad regime's most recent massacre against Douma. Continuous shelling in Douma on 16 August left over one hundred killed in one day.
Rethink Rebuild Society
First Floor
Discovery House
Crossley Road
Manchester
SK4 5BH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 161 222 9779
Mobile: +44 7730 194083