Ahmad al-Rashid

Ahmad al-Rashid was born in Aleppo, Syria. He studied English language and literature before fleeing the country to the Kurdistan region of Iraq. There, Ahmad taught English in the Syrian refugee camps then joined the UN to work for both the Syrian refugee response and, once Mosul fell to ISIS, the Iraqi displaced people response. The security situation in Iraq prompted him to flee again and to take the treacherous journey from the Middle East to the UK, which he documented on camera. This footage was used in the BBC 2 documentary, Exodus, which received a Liberty Human Rights Arts Award in 2016. Ahmad arrived in the UK in July 2015 and, since then, has been working with grassroots organisations to advocate for refugee rights. He is now studying an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development at the University of London.