From his home in Manchester, Hussam Kassas has been closely following the downfall of the Assad regime.
The 36-year-old Syrian, his wife, son and newborn baby are seeking asylum in Britain.
But the fast-moving events thousands of miles away have led to their asylum claims being paused.
Mr Kassas, who is originally from near Damascus, now fears his family may face homelessness unless the British government reconsiders.
He says, as a young human rights activist in Syria, he was attacked by Assad’s forces.
“I have been targeted by barrel bombs which caused me a serious injuries in my legs,” he recalls.
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Mr Kassas fled the country, crossing into Jordan in 2016, then moving to Turkey with his wife and child.
When their visas there ran out, he applied for student visas in a number of European countries before being granted entry into Britain.
They arrived in August 2023 and applied for asylum weeks later. Since then, they’ve had another baby and continued to wait for a decision on their claim.
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The families searching for loved ones in Syria
Now the situation has become critical, with the student visa and his right to work and continue renting their home due to expire next month.
The government’s pause in processing claims means the family is now unlikely to get a decision in time.
“I don’t know if I [will be] able to look [in] my kid’s eye and tell them we are homeless now,” he says in broken English.
“I don’t want to carry my children and my wife to find a temporary hotel or motel to stay in for a while.”
The UK government estimates some 6,500 Syrians currently in the asylum system are affected by the halting of their claims.
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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended the decision, saying “people were claiming asylum from the Assad regime, which is no longer there”.
“So that’s why it’s right, like France and Germany, for us to suspend those asylum decisions,” she continued.
“But we also need to closely monitor what is happening in Syria because there’s so much instability. We don’t know yet how that will play out or what that will mean.”
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Mr Kassas says he doesn’t believe Syria is now safe to return to.
“It is not ended by Bashar al Assad leaving Syria because all the officers, all the soldiers, all the security officers that have been controlling the country, all the Baath Party, who was controlling the party, were still and still are now, fully functioning and fully armed,” he said. “I think that a lot of revenge killing will happen.”
Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, around 44,000 Syrians have been granted asylum in the UK.
With the UK government under increasing pressure to cut migration, the fall of the Assad regime is leading many to question the ongoing need for Syrians to remain in Britain.
Mr Kassas says it is his “dream” to return to his home country one day – but only if he deems it safe.
“If we have a free country where I freely can express my opinion… I [will] do my best to get back to that,” he says.
Additional reporting by Nick Stylianou.
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