The Journey

The extraordinary story of the refugee boy who lost everything, but found peace and a new life in the UK, working with the Queen's horses. At the age of 7, Abdul was rounding up animals with his 3-year-old brother, Yusuf, when their village in Darfur was bombed. He lost his entire family. Abdul and Yusuf fled with his father's best friend Abud over the border to Chad, where they lived for two years in one of the world's most inhospitable refugee camps. When Abdul was nine, Abud took him to Libya to start a new life, leaving his brother behind. But in 2011, civil war swept through Libya, and Abdul was arrested at the age of 15 for refusing to join the army: `I told them, "The army killed my family. I don't want to be in a war".' But they jailed him, and the violence and abuse he suffered in prison led to hospitalisation, where a foreign doctor, horrified by his injuries, smuggled him onto a humanitarian ship that docked in a busy French port. He slept on the streets in France for over a year before stowing away on a Swindon-bound lorry, where he was picked up by UK police. Granted asylum in Britain and diagnosed with PTSD, Abdul was helped by Greatwood, a charity that uses ex-racehorses to help disadvantaged children. This was a lifeline for Abdul. Working with horses made him feel close to the parents he lost. `When I touch a horse, I feel I am touching my father and my mother. I can speak to horses much better than I can speak to people.' This is the remarkable story of one boy's journey around the globe in a desperate search for a safe place to live.