Syrian refugees lend a helping hand in flooding

Parts of England, Scotland and Wales have been hit with severe flooding in recent days, forcing evacuations and leaving cars and home submerged in some areas. British Prime Minister David Cameron had been visiting some of the worst-hit areas, but help has also arrived from a more surprising segment of society.

According to reports in the Guardian and elsewhere, a group of Syrian refugees has been working in Littleborough, Greater Manchester, shoveling sand into sandbags to help avert more flooding.

“We saw the pictures on TV and wanted to help,” Yasser al-Jassem, a 35-year-old teacher told the Guardian, adding that the people of Greater Manchester had been good to him and others in his group and they wanted to help in response.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Jassem explained that he had used social media to find other Syrian refugees who wanted to help.

“I put out a call through WhatsApp and immediately had many other Syrian refugees join me,” he explained. “It shows that we are very much interested in not only becoming a part of British society, but also contributing to it.”

While Britain has largely been spared the brunt of Europe’s refugee crisis thanks to its geographical location away from mainland Europe, rising numbers of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa became a major controversy this year. Once there were calls to send the army into the refugee camp that had sprung around the French port of Calais — the same port that Jassem had entered Britain through in the back of a truck.