A Syrian refugee who fled war-torn Ukraine has finally be reunited with his parents in Dumfries.
Twenty-four-year-old Syrian Naeem Hijazi was a student in the eastern city of Kharkiv when the Russians invaded in March.
He managed to escape to Poland but was denied a visa to enter the UK.
But after a campaign by the local refugee action group, Massive Outpouring of Love, he was granted permission to join his parents, Sareb Meslmani and Abdul Majeed Hijazi and he arrived in Dumfries.
He told the Standard: “It’s really thrilling being here, I feel so satisfied. After all these years I am finally with my parents.”
Naeem originally fled Syria in 2013 as civil war spread through the country.
He spent time with his family in Lebanon then moved to Sudan to study medicine while his parents came to live in Dumfries more than three years ago.
When revolution swept through the African country, he left for Egypt and applied for a visa to Ukraine where he enrolled at a university in Kharkiv.
Two months later the Russian invasion put his studies on hold once again and he had to flee again.
He left the city by train and then walked more than 60km to the Polish border.
From there, he was put on a bus with other non-Ukrainian refugees and taken to Germany where he suffered from a serious bout of Covid-19 during the long wait to find out if he could get a visa to the UK.
Naeem finally stepped out onto Scottish soil at Edinburgh Airport this week and is now settling in at his parent’s home in Dumfries with the hope of achieving his ambition to become a doctor.
