STROUD has united to welcome the first Syrian refugee family to the district, after a backlash of criticism online.

Dozens of residents, including traders, authors, musicians, actors and politicians, came together to show their support for the family who arrived in the area last month.

Stroud News and Journal:

This followed a torrent of criticism for the family being given accommodation in the district when the SNJ first broke the news online.

The Syrian family are said to be “over the moon” with their new home and are enjoying mingling with their friendly neighbours and the scenic surroundings.

Since the war in Syria began five years ago, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and millions have fled abroad.

Stroud’s latest residents are one of 10 families set to move to the district after last September’s announcement by Prime Minister David Cameron that the UK would be resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020.

Hundreds of people from Stroud campaigned to help those fleeing from the war-torn country in what The Refugee Council said was “the greatest global refugee crisis since the Second World War”.

Lis Parker, an active member of the community in Stroud, spent time cooking meals in a refugee camp in Idomeni on the Greek Macedonian border.

“Having seen the conditions that people are living in in the camps in northern Greece I’m very relieved that Stroud has managed to help one family and will be helping more,” she told the SNJ.

“Anyone who understands the trauma and loss that these people have been through to get here would do anything to help.”

Businesswoman Berith Sandgren-Clarke brought gifts to pass on to the family.

“I wanted to give the woman some things to treat herself and I bought the man some drink tokens from a coffee shop,” she said.

In other gestures of goodwill practice manager at a law firm Collingridge Employment, Annabel Richmond gave the SNJ a card to pass on to the family and Deborah Roberts, a photographer at Stroud Nature invited them to a festival celebrating wildlife because she had heard the family enjoyed the outdoors.

Sunie Fletcher, owner of the Bluestocking Wool Shop, criticised the British government for not taking in more refugees.

She added: “The SNJ’s report on this family’s arrival attracted some vile, hateful comments online from small-minded xenophobes – it’s up to all of us to fight such ignorance and hatred any way we can.”

Meanwhile party leaders on Stroud District Council have each signed a statement saying the authority would take a “zero tolerance” policy to racist crimes following a rise in offences after the Brexit vote.

Multiple agencies are working to settle the Syrian families, including SDC, Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Garas), Gloucestershire County Council, Stroud Foodbank and the Furniture Bank.

Director of Garas Adele Owen said: “The family is over the moon with its new home and the area.

“They have commented on how friendly people are and how they love the area and its wildlife.”

Syrian refugees arriving through the Government’s Vulnerable Person’s Relocation Scheme are granted five years’ humanitarian protection.

Unlike refugees from other countries who are resettled through the Gateway Programme with indefinite leave to remain, Syrians have been displaced for a relatively short period of time and the British Government hopes that in the future they will be able to return to Syria.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) which oversees resettlement for Syrian families assesses their vulnerability according to various criteria. This includes survivors of torture or violence, women who are at risk, in order to reunify families, children and adolescent refugees and those with medical needs.

To date four other Syrian families have moved to Gloucestershire - two in Cheltenham and two in Gloucester. They are being looked after by GARAS to help them settle into their new communities.

The families arriving in the Stroud district under the relocation scheme are being housed in privately rented accommodation.

Because of a shortage of private affordable housing in the district, GARAS is urging anyone who has an empty property that they would like to put forward at an affordable rental rate for a long-term home for one of the future families, to call them on 01452 550528.

Anyone wishing to give gifts to the Syrian family can drop them off in the SNJ office to be passed on.