A YOUNG Syrian refugee living in Hereford has been given this year’s annual Hereford Lions Club’s £500 bursary to help a young person achieve a personal goal.

This year Yildiz Farfour, a Syrian refugee was nominated for the award by Jan Doran of Herefordshire City of Sanctuary and was successful.

His family home in Syria was bombed and in 2016, when he was 17, arriving with no English, he was given refuge in Herefordshire, spending four years at Hereford Sixth Form College where he passed his GCSEs and A Levels.

Now, Yildiz is preparing to go to university to train as a doctor. But his laptop, vital to his education, collapsed and he needed money to replace it.

Jan Doran, secretary of the Herefordshire branch of the City of Sanctuary which supports refugees, nominated him for this year’s Lions bursary.

Lion Mike Hughes, chairman of the community support team, said “He is an outstanding young man, dedicated to becoming a doctor and repaying his debt to Britain for giving him a home. He is already a volunteer at the County Hospital.”

Herefordshire is home to 95 of the 20,000 Syrian refugees housed across the UK between 2014 and 2021, figures from the House of Commons Library show, as the Government prepares to resettle another 20,000 people – this time from Afghanistan.

And according to the latest population estimates, that means Syrian refugees make up just five in every 10,000 Herefordshire residents.

The Government recently announced that the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will welcome 20,000 people trying to escape persecution from the Taliban – with up to 5,000 in its first year.

They will be offered the chance to set up life in the UK permanently, with priority given to women and girls, and religious and other minorities most at risk of human rights abuses.

Those escaping conflict in Syria were granted refugee status with full rights to live and work, provided with housing and support, and help to integrate into their communities.

People with ongoing claims for asylum receive financial assistance and accommodation through what is known as Section 95 support, as do those whose application was unsuccessful, but who had children in their household.

The HoC Library figures show 44,800 people were receiving Section 95 support across the UK at the end of March.

The Home Office received almost 150,000 applications for support between 2013 and 2020, with around five per cent from Afghan nationals.