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    'Your Children Are Safe': A Town In Wales Welcomes Refugees From Syria

    The U.K. began its community sponsorship program for Syrians in 2016. Some refugees who arrived earlier have helped newcomers settle in — and are persuading Welsh communities to open their doors.
    by Daniella Cheslow Jun 06, 2018 5 minutes
    Hussam Allahham, a refugee from Syria who is trained as a doctor, now works part-time for a refugee aid organization in Wales. He says Syrians can be shocked when they reach small villages, and he tells them to consider it a break after years of struggle to survive.

    Back in February, Jeff Britten sent a description of Haverfordwest, his town of 13,000 people in southwestern Wales, to a family of Syrian refugees living in Jordan.

    "I ran around town and took pictures of the castle, the best bits, the River Cleddau," Britten says. "I produced a map which showed the location of the house, and that everything was in walking distance, supermarkets, schools, a mosque. It was all there for them."

    He hoped the family, whom he contacted with the help of the Home Office, which controls U.K. immigration, would come live in Wales. At that stage, he knew little about them, only that they were Syrians recognized as refugees by the United Nations.

    Britten is 71 and retired from the pharmaceutical industry. The idea to reach out to Syrian refugees came in late 2016, when he heard that two other Welsh

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