The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday December 10 2024 #Syria

The Scotsman

Dale speaks to investigations correspondent Martyn McLaughlin on the story of Syrian refugee Tasnim Helmi who found a new home on the Isle of Bute

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Tuesday. My

00:04name is Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our

00:08Investigations Correspondent Martin McLachlan. Martin, I'll get to you shortly.

00:14The front page does touch on what I wanted to talk to you about today. It led

00:18on a really powerful image coming out of Syria there. Going home is the headline.

00:25Certainly the latest developments ongoing around Syria including the UK's

00:31position which we'll talk about shortly. We know the Assad regime has been

00:36overthrown, the former president has fled to Moscow and there are ongoing

00:40implications not only for that part of the world but also for us here in the UK

00:46as well. We also splashed on the City Council leader Cammy Day in Edinburgh

00:52quitting, putting out a resignation statement yesterday, admit allegations

00:58over sexually explicit messages that he sent to Ukrainian refugees, expect that

01:04there will be more over coming days in and around that story. There is a live

01:07police investigation into that matter although Cammy Day says he's not been

01:12contacted directly by police as of yesterday and Monday afternoon. Martin,

01:18you actually reached out to Syrian people here based in Scotland on Monday

01:24and I know you had a really fascinating interview with with one person that had

01:30fled Syria a few years back. Yeah, absolutely, Dale. I think the

01:36coverage of the fall of the Assad regime has rightly focused on the millions

01:42of people that have been killed but, you know, just as damning as that is the 12

01:48million or so people that have been displaced from their from the homeland

01:51and thousands of Syrian refugees as we know over the past eight years have made

01:58a new life, a new future in Scotland and one of those, one of the most

02:01remarkable refugees is a woman called Hasman. Tell me, she came with her

02:08husband and her father and they set up a bakery in Rothesay in the Isle of Bute

02:14and it has become a real success story and she's expanded her business to

02:20various locations in Glasgow and eastern Bartleshire and so, you know, she's

02:26managed to really make a go of things in Scotland and become a real success story

02:30but obviously the events in recent days in Syria has been hugely emotional for

02:35her. She still has lots of friends and family there and I think her emotions

02:42are very similar to a lot of Syrian refugees, you know, there's obvious

02:46happiness that Assad has gone but there's apprehension and uncertainty for

02:52the future and she articulated that really well. She told me at one point it

02:56felt like what's happened over the past week has been like a dream coming true.

03:01And Mardin, I spoke about obviously we're watching on with the situation as it

03:07develops over the past 48 hours or so from Syria itself but here in the UK

03:14there are updates particularly around asylum seeker applications. Can you just

03:19take us through the latest position there? Yeah, the UK government has

03:23announced that it is essentially pausing the acceptance of asylum claims from

03:28people in Syria. Basically Angela Eagle, the immigration minister, has said

03:35that things have moved so quickly with the fall of Assad and there's a kind of

03:40uncertainty about governance in Syria. They're not quite sure who's in control

03:45and how to therefore assess asylum applications. I think the government

03:50wants to take a bit of time and see what happens in Syria over the coming days

03:55and perhaps longer. There's obviously been concern for that because there are

04:01people in Syria who are still hoping to come to the UK but you know other

04:06European countries, Sweden for example, they have paused all decisions on

04:11Syrian asylum requests as well and I think Germany is looking at

04:17something similar. So it's just waiting for a bit of a kind of political

04:21certainty about the kind of new administration that's going to take over

04:25in Syria. But as things stand, certainly those applications have been paused.

04:30And we know Sir Keir Starmer, who was in the UAE on Monday, has spoken over

04:37Sunday and Monday about the situation in Syria. Certainly, you know, backing or

04:43making some positive noise about the overthrow of the regime in Syria

04:48but there's still a lot to play out there about the administration that will

04:52take control in that part of the country. Martin, thanks for joining us. As we

04:56record this, there's a couple of breaking stories. One around potential strike

05:01action announced, 19 continuous days of strike action at the Edinburgh Airport by

05:05tanker workers and also confirmation about falling teacher numbers across

05:09Scotland. Both those stories will be at scotsman.com for you to read all the

05:15very latest. Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, we're on Blue Sky.

05:20Go and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow for a comprehensive map of your latest

05:25Scottish and world news. Thanks to you, Martin. Thanks everyone else for joining

05:29us.

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