A SYRIAN family was left for nearly two years without any update from the Home Office on their asylum claims, the Sunday National has been told.
Fadi Alsakka, who is currently living in Glasgow with his wife Lojain and two children – Ayman, 10, and Ayla, 9 – said he was first interviewed by UK Government officials after claiming asylum in September 2023.
“I did my second interview last month,” he added. “I was waiting for 23 months to get my second interview. Can you imagine this? No contact, no information or anything. Not even a reply.”
One piece of contact Alsakka and his family did have during the two-year period was receiving their ID cards – no less than six times. The first five, both his and his wife’s IDs came printed with their son’s face on them – as did their daughter's on one occasion.
“Yes, they did it five times. Crazy,” Alsakka said, showing a picture of 11 misprinted cards lined up.
Before coming to the UK, Alsakka had been living in Saudi Arabia. He worked as a procurement engineer for a construction firm for 12 years before his contract was terminated, and he faced being sent back to Syria.
As he already had a UK student visa in place, Alsakka instead used it to bring his family to Britain and claim asylum.
“Going back to Syria, there is no safety there,” he told me when we met in Glasgow last week. “You could be killed. You could be kidnapped. Your kids could be kidnapped, easily.
“There is no safe place now in Syria, in all Syria.”
Born and raised in Homs – a city north of Damascus that was a key battleground in the Syrian civil war – Alsakka said a massacre on April 18, 2011, changed everything. “I was there. I will never forget the date,” he said.
“I had to leave. I chose – actually, I didn't choose, I was forced by my parents to ‘just go, leave, leave the country, find a normal place to live and start a life. You cannot live in Syria anymore’.”
As the Syrian civil war exploded, the rest of his family also fled their homeland.
“I don't have any relatives in Syria now,” Alsakka said. “My brother’s in Belgium, I have a sister in Germany, I have a sister in UAE, I have another sister in Albania.
“It's very, very difficult, very tough. But this is not only my case. Any Syrian you will meet, you will find the same situation. They are torn apart, the whole country.”
After arriving in the UK, Alsakka looked for a small city where he could live with his family while their asylum claims were processed, settling on Dundee.
The family rented privately in the Scottish city for one year before their savings ran dry.
“I spent like £10,000,” Alsakka said. “This money was dedicated to studying, but then I had to maintain a family together.”
Facing no other choice, the family had to apply for government accommodation in September 2024, which meant leaving behind the community they had found in Dundee.
“I tried to be very clear with the Home Office: my goal is to keep my children in their school because they are settled,” he said. “I asked many times for the Home Office to relocate me in Dundee.
“We brought a letter from the school stating that the children are integrated, they have friends, and shifting them will be difficult and challenging, but all these efforts were useless.
“They transferred us to Glasgow – which is good,” he added. “At least they kept us in Scotland.”
After three months in an asylum hotel, the family were moved into a flat, where they are still staying.
A former electrical engineer, Alsakka this month started a Master's in supply chain and procurement management at the University of Strathclyde on an asylum scholarship.
He said that, after graduating and if he is given leave to remain and work in the UK, he would like to be part of the solution to the housing crisis in Scotland.
“I think especially Glasgow, they have an issue with accommodation,” Alsakka said. “They have plans for the future, strategic plans, and I hope I'm going to be part of it – even for simple electrical work. It's fine for me if I have to start again. I always have the flexibility to start again.”
But as it stands, he and his family are living in limbo, unable to work or leave the UK.
“For me, it’s fine. I can make myself busy,” Alsakka said. “But for the children, it's very tough. They are not infants, where you can just smile and change their day. They are 10 and nine years old. They understand everything.
“My son, every day, every day, is asking me when we can visit our relatives in Germany. It's his right to ask, but I cannot answer.
“It's not easy. They always tell us stories about their friends visiting someone. ‘Why can’t we visit someone?’ Because we don't have status.”
After two years in the system, Alsakka said that there might be an option to go through the courts if his family is forced to wait beyond a third – but funding would present a major hurdle.
“Most asylum seekers prefer the court. You know why? It's not because the court or the judge will be easy with them. It's because there is someone you can talk to, you can have eye contact, a person to hear you,” he said.
“It's not like the Home Office situation. You just send an email, blind, you will get an automatic reply, everything is automated, and nobody's talking to you. Nobody is replying to you.”
After finally having his second asylum interview last month, does Alsakka see an end to his family’s years-long wait?
“We don't have a time scale and we don't have a deadline,” he said. “We are moving in the dark.”
The Home Office was approached for comment.
