A mum who fled war-torn Sudan for a new life in Glasgow has been reunited with her husband and two children after they were granted permission to stay in the UK.
Kaltouma Ibrahim left Sudan 10 years ago but her husband Hassan and son Nasir, 19, and daughter Awadia, 16, remained in their homeland. A campaign led by the Church of Scotland helped get the rest of them to the UK and they’ve now joined Kaltouma in Glasgow.
It brings a happy ending to a difficult and distressing chapter in the family’s story after three other children died as a result of the conflict in Sudan. Mrs Ibrahim was granted leave to remain in 2019 giving her the right to live and work in the UK and is a valued member of the Gorbals Parish Church community.
The 51-year-old is a practicing Muslim despite being a part of the church community and it’s hoped the rest of the family will follow in her footsteps. She hosted a special celebratory lunch in the sanctuary on Sunday to thank the congregation and wider community for all their support, and she admits she is thrilled to have her family back with her after a decade apart.
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Mrs Ibrahim, 51, said: "I am very happy to have been finally reunited with my family after so many years apart and they are now safe living with me in Glasgow.
"I am very grateful and thankful to all the people who have helped me in so many ways to make this happen and we can finally start a new chapter in our lives."
Speaking on behalf of herself and her brother, Awadia said: "We are both very happy to be reunited with our mother and be together again after so many years.
"We feel very safe in Glasgow, we like the city very much, especially Glasgow Green, and all the people we have met so far have been very friendly, supportive and welcoming."
Both children enrolled in an English as a second language course at Cardonald College this week and Awadia is hopeful she will get a place at Shawlands Academy to continue her education.
Mrs Ibrahim was born in Chad and met her Sudanese husband there but they were forced to flee the country after his life was repeatedly threatened. They moved to Sudan but the civil war forced the family to escape and they travelled to Libya, where they look to secure passage on a boat bound for Italy across the Mediterranean Sea.
Tragically, the boat sank and two of the couple’s children – Mohammed, 6, and Faisal, 4, - drowned. The survivors reached the short but Mrs Ibrahim was separated from the rest of her family after being taken to hospital for treatment and she was unable to find them when she was discharged.
Eventually she was forced to give up and returned to Chad and her husband and the children managed to make it back to Khartoum. She thought she would be safe in Chad but the country was terrorised by Boko Haram and she was beaten and tortured by people looking for her husband.
(Image: Church of Scotland)
Friends paid for her to escape and she managed to get to France by lorry and eventually to London in December 2016 where she claimed asylum. She moved to Glasgow a year later and secured refugee status and a resident permit in 2019.
Tracking down her now 73-year-old husband and teenage children in Khartoum and over the years they had sporadic contact via WhatsApp when the internet was working, with help from the Red Cross.
She is currently studying at Anniesland College to improve her English and works part-time with disabled children for Glasgow City Council. Catriona Milligan, community development work at Gorbals Parish Church, first met Mrs Ibrahim five years ago and has helped fight for her to be reunited with her family.
The refugee applied to bring her family to live with her under the UK Government policy on family reunion.
Her lawyer submitted paperwork to the Home Office two years ago but a decision was only made in December last year after the church publicly highlighted the family’s plight. Tragically, the couple’s 13-year-old daughter Safa was killed in a rocket attack as they awaited news on the family’s via application.
Former SNP MP for Glasgow Central Alison Thewliss had already taken up the family's case with the Home Office and after the campaign was launched, she raised the case on the floor of the House of Commons.
Paul Sweeney, a Glasgow list Labour MSP, raised the family's plight in the Scottish Parliament during a debate on asylum policy and persuaded the Scottish Government to make representations to the UK Government.
Mrs Milligan said: "I feel humbled, moved, overjoyed and relieved because there were times when we wondered if we were ever going to be able to reunite them.
"It is only emerging now how difficult the family's journey was despite all our efforts but it was all worth it just to see them together again after 10 years.
(Image: Church of Scotland)
"Kaltouma is a different person now to the one I first met five years ago and that is just lovely to see.
"Decency, love, prayer and determination, all of these things came together and the fight to reunite Kaltouma with her family pulled us together as a congregation and as a wider community.
"We have always prided ourselves as a welcoming congregation and this situation tested that and proved that these are not just words.
"Kaltouma is loved and members of the wider community would regularly come to the church and ask her how she was doing and give her a hug.
"People dug deep to donate money for the airfares and I noticed people who I know do not have much money quietly slipping some to Kaltouma to help her and that was very moving.
"The ripple effects of the campaign to reunite the family will last for a long time to come in the Gorbals."
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