16 Mar 2021

Refugee on ten years since start of Syrian crisis

From Morning Report, 8:38 am on 16 March 2021

Ten years have now passed since the start of the Syrian crisis.

March 2011 marked the start of protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, and the resulting crackdown by his government started an ongoing civil war, which has killed around 500,000 and displaced half the pre-war population of 23 million, five million of whom are now refugees.

Two years ago Susie Ferguson spoke to Radwan Loulou, a then-18-year-old Syrian refugee who had settled with his family in New Zealand.

They caught up again on Tuesday.