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		</div><p>It’s shamefully easy to forget that refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq are regular people with jobs, ambitions, toys and gadgets, love interests, favourite musicians, date nights – everyday things, the majority of which are now out of reach.</p>
<p>In Europe, refugees, on the whole, are seen through a particular lens. A lens that says they’re “flooding” the continent, accompanied by images of a “tide” of humans thousands of miles deep into a journey with no guarantees. A lens that dehumanises.</p>
<p>The British Red Cross identifies this as one of the problems for refugees who find themselves in Britain and is hoping to change that through a music project, The Long Road. It sees real stories being told by a host of musicians – including Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin – and they’ve commissioned a mural in Camden to go along with it.</p>
<p>The mural, created by street artist Pang, features the face and story of Ayman Hirh, a Syrian refugee who was helped by the Red Cross.</p>
<p>Ayman, who was a successful businessman in Syria before having to flee with his wife and two young sons, said: “It has been great to meet Pang and share my story through this street art mural and to be involved in the project as a whole.</p>
<p>“I hope that my experience and the album will encourage people to think about the reasons people like me are forced to leave home before they judge us.”</p>
<p>His story, which following the widespread killing of civilians – including many of his friends – resulted in him being granted leave to remain in the UK for five years, also became the subject a track by vocalist-prodicer Kindness.</p>
<p>Pang seemed to perceive the same problems as the Red Cross, saying: “I hope that it spreads the message that refugees are all individuals, like you and me, who have no choice other than to seek sanctuary in the country that they arrive.</p>
<p>“By reading about people’s individual stories, we can learn something about the collective experience of being a refugee. It’s more important now than ever that the British people are accommodating to refugees as their numbers increase over the years to come.”</p>
<p>Since the breakout of civil war in March 2011, an estimated nine million Syrians have fled their homes – the majority to neighbouring countries in the Middle East and North Africa, or within Syria itself.</p>
<p>Despite the fact it is countries experiencing their own internal problems taking in the majority of refugees, many in Europe feel the continent is being engulfed – a misconception aided by misleading articles, preconceived prejudices and a huge focus on the consequences of the Syrian conflict, by both the media and governments, instead of the reasons for it.</p>
<p>Just above 10% of those who’ve been forced from Syria have sought shelter in Europe, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the response to a call from the organisation for 130,000 resettlement spots for refugees between 2013 and 2016 has been largely indifferent.</p>
<p>If the governments of Europe do fulfil their various promises to help, more projects like this one from the Red Cross may become necessary.</p>
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