I came to Britain as a teenager. Now I’m the first female Syrian refugee pilot

It’s been a difficult year for refugees. The Labour Party has been pushed right as public attitudes in the UK harden and the explicitly anti-immigration Reform UK surges in the polls.

Amid the politicking, Big Issue is releasing a series on how refugees in Britain are embracing the festive season.

Despite growing adversity, many people who have sought safety in Britain remain hopeful – and are determined to enjoy Christmas here.

Read the third article in our ‘Refugees at Christmas’ series below.

Read more:

• My family fled Iran to escape death. This year’s Christmas in Britain will be unlike any other
• I fled Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. This is what Christmas is like for refugee families like mine
• No room at the inn for refugees? Many Brits are happy to welcome strangers in need

Maya’s story

How early is too early for Christmas music? Maya Ghazal laughs. ‘After bonfire night, you can listen to Mariah Carey. That’s what I was told.’

After 10 years in the UK, Ghazal is fully versed in the idiosyncrasies of a British Christmas: the music, the secret Santa, the “things you pop and you get like, a little paper crown… what are they called? Oh, crackers! The best part of Christmas is Christmas crackers. With the stupid jokes.”

The 26-year-old is a Muslim, but she sees Christmas in Britain as a “national holiday” as much as a religious one. Ghazal is full of plans: this will be the first Christmas she properly spends with her British boyfriend, and she is looking forward to all the trappings of the season.

“I just learned to play charades,” she says.

It will be welcome time off for the very-busy Ghazal, whose day job is piloting planes for TUI, having gained her commercial licence earlier this year. 

“It’s a lot of early mornings,” she explains, “but there’s the flying bug.”

It’s not been an easy journey to get to this point. Ghazal was 11 when anti-government protests – part of the broader Arab Spring – erupted across Syria in 2011. Initially peaceful demonstrations were met with a harsh state response: mass arrests and violent crackdowns. 

The breakdown of public order spiralled into a prolonged near-14-year civil war. 

“I guess I had to grow up a lot sooner,” Ghazal says. “Electricity and water would be cut off and meat prices skyrocketed, it stopped being safe going to school, because it would be in a red zone,” she recalls. “We couldn’t see a future in the country.”

Her father fled, seeking asylum in the UK. After his claim was approved, Ghazal – then 15 – and her mother joined on a family reunification visa.

“I remember I took a lot of my teddy bears,” she says. “We stayed in an airport [Heathrow] hotel… I was fascinated by the planes.”

“Taking off, landing. I remember watching them like, ‘Wow.’”

This proved to be a pivotal moment in her life. Once she was settled in Britain, Ghazal secured a place at Brunel University to study aviation engineering. In 2020, she qualified as the first female Syrian refugee pilot.

Alongside her training, Ghazal became increasingly involved in advocacy work. She began volunteering with UNHCR in 2017 and was appointed a goodwill ambassador in 2021, helping to raise funds and awareness for humanitarian crises. Yet, she says, misconceptions around asylum are increasingly common. “People misunderstand refugees,” she says.

“There’s always been, like, this kind of negative stereotype towards refugees and asylum seekers… over the years, I think this image has increased, and it’s unfortunate.

“I am now a British citizen and I’ve paid a lot of tax since I’ve come out of university – as an engineer and now as a pilot. I have no intention of doing otherwise. I consider myself as British. Britain gave me a second chance… I feel myself in this country, and so do my family.”

If the restrictions that now exist on family reunification were present when her family sought refuge, she would not be here: “My father would not have gone without us.”

“It saddens me that other young families are potentially deprived of this… had I not come here when we did, I don’t know what my future would have been like. I would never have made it as a pilot.”

You can donate to UNHCR’s winter appeal here.

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