Ali Mustafa relishes finally living in a safe place. After fleeing Syria and travelling through 10 different countries he reached the UK at the end of July. Mustafa, 37, an agricultural engineer, was interviewed by the Guardian in August, a week after he arrived in the UK and first claimed asylum.

His hazardous journey away from his family began in Lebanon, where his wife and their five young children moved to a modest apartment in Hassbia in the south. Once his family were safe and settled in their new accommodation, Mustafa embarked on his journey, determined to bring his loved ones over once he had settled in the UK and found work.

I will never forget the screams of one of my daughters who was buried in the rubble Ali Mustafa

He passed through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and France, where he spent 24 days in Calais. After dozens of unsuccessful attempts he finally managed to jump on to a train, hiding under a lorry with a few others and reaching the UK.

“Jumping the train in Calais was no big deal compared with all the bombing we ran away from. Every day in Syria I used to look up to the sky and see birds and sunshine, fruits and vegetables growing out of the earth and sheep and camels walking on it. When the war started we looked up to the sky and saw only airstrikes and helicopters. When we looked down at the earth we saw only bombs lying on the ground. When the trouble started we fled from Dera to Raqqa. But our house in Raqqa was bombed. I will never forget the screams of one of my daughters who was buried in the rubble. We managed to dig her out and fortunately she survived,” Mustafa said.

“As soon as the train started to go fast and enter the tunnel without us being found we knew we had made it,” he said. “We did a kind of hug with each other as best we could under the lorry because we were so happy. We had struggled so hard – but we had achieved.”

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Mustafa was first given temporary accommodation in London by the Home Office and was then moved to Stockton-on-Tees while his asylum claim was processed. He endured a period of enforced limbo as asylum seekers are not allowed to work and are not able to access many educational opportunities or any mainstream benefits.

Fortunately for Mustafa he only had to wait a few months before being given permission to work, study and get on with his life. Syrian asylum claims are generally processed more quickly than others but many asylum seekers are trapped in the system for several years.

“In my interview I told the Home Office that I don’t need any financial support from the UK. I can work. I just need help to feel safe. When the war finishes I want to return to Syria to help rebuild it. Syria is my country,” said Mustafa, adding: “The person who interviewed me from the Home Office was very nice.”

Mustafa got a job working in a Lebanese restaurant in Newcastle as soon as he was granted leave to remain. “I started paying taxes to the UK the day I was granted refugee status,” he said.

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He has worked hard doing a variety of different jobs at the restaurant and has learned how to make proper Lebanese flat bread. He had one bad experience when a customer came into the restaurant soon after the Paris terror attacks and asked him where he was from. When he told her he was from Syria, she accused him of being an Islamic State terrorist.

“I was very angry and upset about this. I am not part of Isis. They are one of the reasons why I ran away from Syria. I asked her to look into my eyes and see if she could see a terrorist there. She apologised after that. She hugged me and offered to help me in any way she could,” he said.

Mustafa has now enrolled at Newcastle College and wants to improve his English. He hopes to obtain a similar agricultural engineering qualification here to the one he had in Syria so that he can use his skills and expertise in the UK.

While Mustafa is happy to be in a safe country at last and is looking forward to being reunited with his family, he is very traumatised by what happened and continues to happen in Syria.

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“The sound of my child screaming under the rubble will stay with me forever. I have lots of nightmares. I get updates about what is happening in Syria all the time on Facebook. Too many friends have been killed. There are thousands of stories about what is happening and each one is worse than the one before. There are so many factions and so much happening now that I no longer know where the beginning is and where is the end. My father is still trapped in Dera and my heart breaks for him. I hope that 2016 will be a better year for all of us,” he said.

“I am worried about my family, my children can’t go to school and life is very difficult for them in Lebanon. We keep in touch via Skype and WhatsApp. I made the very dangerous journey across Europe so that my wife and children wouldn’t have to,” he said. “My wife was so overjoyed when I told her I had been granted refugee status. Now I am making arrangements for my family to join me here. I am working hard to save up enough money for their plane tickets. I am happy that they will be able to travel safely to join me. I can’t wait for our reunion. I know we will all be crying a lot.”