“You have been recognised as a refugee. Your status will be governed by the Provisions of the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 relating to the status of refugees”
Today was the best day since we fled Syria. I received confirmation that I had full official refugee status. What I had not appreciated was that the paperwork had commenced from the day I'd first been interviewed in the French embassy in Athens. So, as the government representatives explained, once I'd arrived the process to completion was going to be quicker than I'd realised.
I'm no longer an asylum seeker under the protection of France. I am, from this moment, an official refugee with the same rights as citizens of France. There are practical as well as emotional benefits from belonging. Until now I couldn't work, change my residence or be absent from my dwelling for more than 24 hours.
Restrictions on my coming and going from my apartment were never in evidence, so I’ll hardly notice any change in that respect, but now I can work. I like working. I like applying myself and making something of myself. In a way I never appreciated before it was taken away from me, I understand now the dignity of being able to do a day’s work.
Official status allows me also to plan my life in France with my wife and children because I have entitlements under French law. It means that, provided I don't have any criminal convictions and that I don't return to Syria or set foot inside a Syrian consulate, I'll be granted French citizenship. My wife and children too. From where I was only five months ago, living in a tiny tent quayside the port of Piraeus in Athens, it's a transformation.
There was further good news. My wife and our two small children will be able to join me sooner than I had thought – maybe by the middle of October. This isn’t definite yet but, because I’d thought it would take another year, the fact that my social worker is confident it’ll be no more than three months makes me excited. When we’re all reunited, I will then be able to start thinking about work and planning our future. I cannot imagine that, as a family, we would ever face a challenge of such proportions again.
Longer wait
I have to be reserved about my good fortune around those with whom I’m sharing an apartment. Their status is much less assured because they’re not fleeing war as defined by the UN and because they made their own way to France to seek asylum. They were in France for months before me and it may take at least another year before their fate is determined by the authorities. My legal training and life experience means I have a good understanding of why it is that our situations have been treated differently but it would be confusing to them so I’ve made no great fuss over the news.
The difference explains, too, why they are mystified to find me spending so much time on a phone app learning French, practising my vocabulary, desperately trying to get myself ahead before the formal classes begin in mid-September. I want to prepare myself for the job market. I want to integrate myself and my family into this place that – in my experience to date – has lived up to those powerful words 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité' and which has somehow plucked me from despair and given me and many others reason to hope.
The day got even better when I heard from Nabil, my dearest friend in the camp – we'd met on the dingy journey from Turkey to Greece – that he'd been selected by France and would be joining me within the next few weeks. Like me, France had been his seventh preference of eight when he'd registered in Greece and, like me, Ireland had been his first.
In my case it was because I’d wanted to go somewhere English is the spoken language and the UK didn’t appeal, but for Nabil it was because he has family members living and working in Ireland. His cousin is a university lecturer in Dublin. Nabil had his heart set on completing his master’s in engineering in Ireland but, just as had happened with me, France had come calling. When you’re living as we were you must take the first shot at redemption. What an addition this young man will be to France.
Seeing my family
The next priority for me is to prepare with my social worker for my wife and children to be able to travel to join me. As should be the case, there’s quite an amount of paperwork involved but the officials are patient and helpful. The process, in my experience, is refugee focused. There appears to be a genuine interest in working with you to ensure that things happen efficiently. While security checks are in evidence, there’s sensitivity around our circumstances and finding ways to limit unnecessary bureaucracy. Communication is constant.
The week I left Greece I was one of 250 refugees who flew to France from Athens, 127 on the same flight. Seven of us ended up together in Beauvais and we all now have our full refugee status. We now have to choose a city of preference in France where we'd like to settle.
I have said it before but it is extraordinary how generous and responsive this nation has been to our plight. I want my family with me and then I want a job. Then my wife and I can build a family unit to show Europe what is possible.
Mustafa is a pseudonym adopted to protect the identity of the author, who is a refugee from Syria. He spoke to Fintan Drury