A 21-year-old who fled Iran as a teenager has shared the harrowing story of how he has ended up living in Carlisle's Hilltop Hotel for the last eleven months. 

Daniel* and his father were forced to flee their home country illegally for both their safety, but also for the future safety of his sisters and mother, after they both converted to Christianity in 2017. 

In an interview arranged through Carlisle's Refugee Action Group (CRAG), Daniel told the Cumberland News: "In the Islamic Republic of Iran, converting to Christianity is completely illegal. In their rules they feel you deserve to die - within a week, the government and police came to look for us, luckily we had already left." 

After being led by smugglers from Turkey to Greece, the pair found themselves in a refugee camp which was built for 3,000 people but which was housing 25,000. 

Daniel said guards and police did not care what went on, even when people were 'killing each other'. 

"It was too much for a teenager who was only studying 28 days ago to see," he said. 

Making numerous attempts to cross another border and failing began to wear out the pair, but eventually, they managed to make it to Germany were they spent seven months together. 

Daniel struggled in Germany, but travelling across Europe during the Covidera became tiring for his father and they parted ways as Daniel headed towards the UK. 

"As I got to France, I eventually called my dad and said I can wait until you come and we can go together. He said: 'If you have the chance, go'.

"Crossing the Channel was really dangerous, we had families with us. 

"When we got some form of signal, I called the coastguard saying we were in the water and it was getting too dangerous.

"They never believed us, they thought we were joking. After an hour, they sent a helicopter.

"We were really scared. Nine hours was too much, we even had dolphins swimming alongside us, you couldn't even go fishing with that boat, never mind crossing the Channel," he said.

When Daniel's dad eventually crossed the Channel, his boat was one of the first groups to be selected to go to Rwanda. The government stopped the flights however, in the last minutes before take-off, and he was sent to a refugee hotel in London.

A bus picked up the 21-year-old, who has become self-taught and fluent in English, one day in London providing no indication as to where he was going in the UK.

After two different stops, his name was called as the bus pulled into Carlisle's Hilltop Hotel.

Eleven months later, living on £8 per week, Daniel looks to make positive light of his situation but was disheartened following the recent anti-refugee march through the city, which was labelled 'Save Our Streets'.

"People judge refugees, they think we're criminals," he said. "We go to church, we make friends, and everyone in the church likes us but when we see that some people judge us for something that wasn't our choice, it's bad.

"I've been living with you for almost a year but I'm a stranger in your eyes. You think I'm a criminal and you want the government to send us elsewhere to make your street safe.

"Maybe we don't know the city, maybe we don't know the culture, why don't you try, tell us, come talk to us?

"I want to do so much more than sitting in my room. I want to go to university, I want to get a job but what makes me sad is that we're not allowed - that is the hardest part.

"It's frustrating and depressing," he said. 

Daniel hopes to be reunited with his father soon.

*Not their real name