Refugee on ten years since start of Syrian crisis

Published: March 15, 2021, 7:38 p.m.

Ten years have now passed since the start of the Syrian crisis. March 2011 marked the start of protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, and the resulting crackdown by his government started an ongoing civil war, which has killed around 500,000 and displaced half the pre-war population of 23 million, five million of whom are now refugees. Two years ago Susie Ferguson spoke to Radwan Loulou, a then-18-year-old Syrian refugee who had settled with his family in New Zealand. They caught up again on Tuesday.