Aryan Omar is Kurdish Sulmani – Iraq.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the Kurdish do not have their own country. The Kurdish live on the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria in an area they call Kurdistan.
For many years the Kurdish have been living with conflict.
Aryan was forced to flee to the UK after attempts were made to recruit him to ISIS, which he refused as it was against his beliefs. As a result he was threatened. He did not know much about the UK; it was just a matter of following the adults around him. He didn’t know about our Queen or Tower Bridge, but had heard of Big Ben.
On arrival in the UK, Aryan was placed in foster care. He describes this as the most difficult time as for the first three months he knew very little English, had no friends or family, and remembers walking around the houses close to where he lived with nowhere to go. He eventually heard people speaking his language and plucked up the courage to approach them. This is when he met his friend Bakhtyar.
Aryan’s foster family was a married couple and their young son. When talking about his foster family, Aryan becomes visibly overwhelmed with gratitude as he recalls their kindness and compassion. He says his foster mum ‘helped him with everything’ and that he is forever grateful.
Aryan’s foster family lived in Surrey and during this time he was in the care of Surrey social services. When it was time for Aryan to leave foster care, he asked his social worker if he could move to Tottenham, so as to be close to where Bakhtyar lived. This was in 2017 and it was at this time that he was placed with PCC.
Aryan attended college locally, improving his English, while he waited for his asylum claim to be considered. Unfortunately he was refused for lack of evidence and had to make a fresh claim. In total Aryan’s case took 9 years.
@nawroz.restaurant97 #foryou #foryoupage #foryou #omg #dolma ♬ الصوت الأصلي – Ali
Following the second refusal there was no further legal aid funding as his merits were low. If there is less than 50% chance of receiving a positive outcome, the government does not fund the appeal. This was difficult for Aryan, he struggled a lot and soon after the side of his face drooped. He had developed Bell’s palsy which is unusual for someone so young. There is no found cause for Bell’s palsy but it is suspected it is stress related.
A solicitor was found, Ian Palmer, who had years of experience in asylum claims. Ian met with Aryan and agreed to take on his case. There was no mention of costs for the meeting nor for any of his work, which took a year. To this day Ian has not asked for any money from Aryan and gave his services for free. Aryan finally received status.
Aryan is now 25 and is married. His wife, Bahar, is from his hometown in Iraq. They have been married for 18 months. It took 9 months for permission to be granted for Bahar to come to the UK.