Abu Ali
Abu Ali, who is 39 and married with six children, describes his excitement when his application was selected and his family were able to move to Canada:
"We left for Lebanon in 2013, we came to West Bekaa and stayed there for three years until 2016. And in 2016, we came here to Canada. We used to live in a tent in a camp in Lebanon. Rent was $400, which was too much for us to afford. And suddenly, I got a message from the UN that our application had been selected to go to Canada, and if I agreed I had to reply "Yes". All night, I sent them a reply of "Yes", I sent them 50,000 "Yes" messages. In the morning, they said that I over-burdened them with my "Yes" messages, the UN!
Refugees Welcome by Francis Mariani is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
They told me to bring all my documents and to come quickly, as my file was being accelerated. I wanted to finish this process, because what we were working in Lebanon we put towards our expenses. And you know Lebanon's situation, the Lebanese people's conditions themselves were difficult, so how about the refugee? And this is what happened. We came to Canada in 2016, and have been here since."
Many refugees endure a long and anxious wait for decisions about their legal status and future. This Refugee Action factsheet contains information about UK asylum processes.
