Sweden
Syria to Sweden
Single mother and librarian, Linnea Tell, hosts Syrian refugee Alqumit Alhamad. Alqumit is Syrian, Muslim and gay. He arrived in Sweden on a snowy day in February 2016 with a small backpack containing a change of clothes, art tools and CDs of Lady Gaga, Björk, and Barbra Streisand.
The 24 year old artist fled Raqqah in northern Syria in 2012 when Islamic State made the city their headquarters. Friends were tortured by Islamic State militants and many homosexuals were thrown to their deaths off buildings in his home town.
“Guards across Europe always looked at me weird when they searched my bag,” remembers Alqumit. “But I don’t care, I can’t live without my music.”
“I can’t tell you how much my life changed and how free I feel. Every day I wake up and say ‘Oh my God, I am in Sweden’. It’s magical. I can say what I like, do what I like.
“The people here, the support, the culture, the safety, it’s a whole other world, especially for a gay person from the Arab world.”
Syria to Sweden
Architect Lars Asklund hosts Syrian refugee Farah Hilal, her husband, Waleed Lababidi and her brother Milad Hilal (seated).
The four always have breakfast together, and sometimes dinner. Waleed, Farah, Milad and some other refugees gather each week at Lars's big kitchen table for a two-hour Swedish language class. One of the neighbours, a retired teacher, also provides an additional hour of language instruction per week. Another friend takes them grocery shopping.
Farah, Milad and Waleed became internally displaced long before they left Syria. They fled their home in 2012, first staying in hotels or with relatives or friends. Eventually, during one family dinner, a missile landed across the street, burning everything, and they decided to leave.
Farah and Waleed came in November 2015 and Milad followed in December that year.
“The minute we saw daylight we packed whatever we could and ran,” Waleed remembers about the day they decided to leave their home in Syria.
“For me it’s fun,” says Lars. “It’s fantastic, I have new friends and I really like them.”
Syria to Sweden
Married couple Gabriella and Candel Webster host Syrian refugee Ahmad Lababidi, his son, Ali (18) and daughter, Hiba (16, not pictured).
On their arrival in Sweden, Ahmed and his children found themselves living in a church. Ahmad (45) said it was one of the best things that happened to them:
“We called and offered him a room in our house, and then we told him we are married,” Gabriella said. “He was very nice and polite but it all got very quiet. We thought he might change his mind.”
“They received us with so much love, compassion and care,” Ahmad says about the time when the family found shelter in a church where they met Gabriella and Candel “They were angels.”
Ahmad struggled at first to with the fact that Gabriella is agnostic and in a same-sex relationshipt “But I see how kind they are, I see their humanity, their love and kindness” he says.