The docs who fled Assad’s evil and now just want to follow their calling in Britain
Tyrant victims’ screams haunt brothers
THE two Syrian doctor brothers on a family outing in a UK park show no sign of the trauma that forced them from their country.
But behind the outer calm Hussam and MohammedChadi Allahham can still hear the screams by young victims of tyrant Bashar al-Assad’s gunmen and his chemical weapon attacks.
For while Britain is their new home, the pair carry Syria with them always.
It is 10 years since a peaceful Damascus demonstration against President Assad triggered a war that killed half a million people and made 12million more homeless.
For Hussam, 38, and Mohammed, 41, the anniversary is a painful reminder of the tragedy that changed their lives irrevocably.
Many of the 20,000 Syrians who settled in Britain to work and start afresh – less than 0.3% of their country’s refugees – are nervous about telling of their ordeal.
But the brothers, who want to use their medical training in the NHS, are sharing their survival story so the world does not forget Syria.
Speaking at Cardiff’s Oasis Centre for refugees, Hussam recalls witnessing the first protests the year after starting as a state hospital surgeon.
“In 2011 we saw how the Arab Spring began in other countries and it seemed to be successful in some – relatively peaceful,” he said.
“We looked forward to this happening in Syria. I had spent a lot of time outside my country, so I knew the need for freedom was very high.
“The first protest on March 15 was something very new. On March 18 the first people died. This was the beginning.
“The regime showed us it would be very brutal and have no mercy. They said anyone injured would be treated as a terrorist and not allowed treatment, even children.
“They were very strict that any doctor should report any patient with bullet wounds.”
Both brothers knowingly put their own safety at risk by working in freedom fighters’ makeshift field hospitals.
They came under sniper fire in crossing to rebel-held areas from the regime-run part of Damascus where they lived and officially worked.
Colleagues disappeared after arousing suspicion. A major risk was stealing drugs from hospitals to treat victims. As doctors, the brothers saved lives regardless of sides.
Hussam said: “We swore we’d treat all people. Once we had an important general with five gunshot wounds.
“In the operation, staff said, ‘Please can you kill him, as he tortured and raped a lot of people in our area?’ I wished I could but my job did not allow me. He survived.
“Sometimes Assad’s intelligence men came to the hospital and took us or other doctors to the prison to keep tortured inmates alive so they could be tortured more.”
He wept at the memory then went on: “At that time I regretted studying medicine and becoming a doctor.
“In two or three months I did about 50 amputations – the last one on an old lady who was diabetic and didn’t feel anything, so there was no need for an anaesthetic.
“I thought, ‘I’ve become a monster, I’m not human any more’. I felt I couldn’t go on.”
Both brothers fled Syria after being branded traitors for treating Assad’s victims, one a child.
They continued with medical work to help conflict victims – but the danger became so great they embarked on the perilous migrant trafficking route to Europe.
Part of their journey involved a night march in the Sahara desert to Libya. For fear of robbery they pretended their arms had been broken and hid cash inside fake casts.
After a horrific voyage across the Mediterranean to Italy, the brothers volunteered for the Red Cross.
But after finding no real job opportunities they decided on trying to claim asylum in Britain, where they had an uncle, and arrived in 2014.
Both now speak fluent English and have tax-paying jobs in Cardiff. Hussam is a community worker, while Mohammed is an assistant in a mental health care home and has also served as an interpreter for councils, hospitals and banks.
Mohammed met and wed a Syrian woman who came to Britain with her children from a refugee camp in Lebanon after her previous husband was killed in a bombing. They now have three children of their own.
The brothers’ ambition is to work as doctors again but they claim to be blocked by General Medical Council rules on foreign qualifications.