More than 200 Syrian refugees have been living in the Roscommon town for nearly a year.
Two Syrian refugees and their families, based in Ballaghdereen, will feature in a special report examining how they’ve taken to life in Ireland on Prime Time on Thursday night.
In January of last year, RTÉ Prime Time visited the town on the border of Mayo as it prepared for the arrival over 200 Syrian refugees, who have been housed in the Abbeyfield Hotel in Ballaghdereen.
One year on, Prime Time will report on two of the refugees, Qais Khalaf and Rakan Alzahab, and their families as they try to make a life for themselves in Ireland.
The programme will also follow Prime Time reporter Eithne O'Brien, who travelled to Syria to meet some of the people they had to leave behind, to discover more about what drove them to flee their country and to understand the devastation of having their family torn apart by the war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yggGg7H0EFE&feature=youtu.be
Clip via RTÉ TV Promotions
Commenting on life in Ireland, Rakan (21) said: “It’s good but not that good, I told you both the life there is, you can’t describe it, you are in open prison fivestar and we are in also, how I can describe that, in good position and in the same time we are not in good position?
“Like we want to fly, I told you already we want wings to fly but we can’t, we have our paper but we don’t have accommodation to start our life.”
Speaking about the life left behind in Syria, meanwhile, Qais said: “I am always talking with my family in Syria but before one week there is no contact with my family because our city is now surrounded by Kurdish forces and regime forces from all sides and there are a lot of planes and bombs and my family plan to travel to the next city.”
RTÉ Prime Time – Lives in Limbo airs on RTÉ One on Thursday, 11 January at 9.35pm.
