"I feel like I'm in a dream and I don't want to wake up," says Amr Shayah, a Syrian refugee living in Greenwich, south-east London. He calls me with a croaky voice after spending the past few days celebrating the end of Assad's brutal regime with family and friends. The last time I was there, I left because I was threatened to be killed or arrested and tortured to death."
Mr. Shayah, 38, claimed asylum as a refugee in 2022 and now works for humanitarian and development projects. Previously, he worked in an airport in Syria after studying aviation engineering. He also worked as an activist alongside his day job. At that time, what started as a revolution in many Arab countries, also known as the Arab Spring, ended up as a civil war in Syria where Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising.
Following this, the Syrian diaspora gathered in Trafalgar Square to share sweets, dance, and sing in the streets. After more than fifty years of the Assad regime, with his brutal tactics and control, the fall of such a dictatorship led to a collective sense of relief and hope among many displaced Syrians.
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