How an ex-Army officer inspired by The Great Escape masterminded the evacuation of White Helmet rescuers from Syria 

One morning last July, Amer locked the front door of his house in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, shoved his house keys and documents into his jeans pocket, and rode off on motorcycle.

“I had no hope of survival,” he recalled. “I was leaving my country, my friends, my family, everything I was used to. So I felt like it was ending. Like everything was ending,” he told the Telegraph in an exclusive interview.

But today, the 33-year old has a new set of house keys – to a small rented flat in an East Anglian town where he is trying to rebuild his life "from zero" – and a new ID card – a blue-covered British identity document, proof of his status as refugee granted asylum in Britain.  

His journey…

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