"Us"

26 July 2023

5 mins 36s

We exist.

Libby Burke Wilde directs this hopeful ad for Lancashire County Council, who help refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, and even El Savador start new lives. As the cast explain, this process, despite what some anti-migrant campaigners think, is never straightforward.

"You are just in the middle of a new culture and a new society where you're lost," says a former British Embassy employee forced to leave Afghanistan to protect his family. Meanwhile, a Syrian mother-of-two notes that her children were born in Libya and the UK—all three countries shape them, and enrich their daily routine.

Both adults and children alike benefit from the work of the Lancashire Refugee Integration Team, like seven-year-old Yousef Al Hamdan. With a gentle regional accent, he says: "I like to play football outside with my friends and my brother". This is the safety many of us take for granted, but refugees crave.

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