Human rights lawyer now living in Wokingham speaks out about persecution

His story is just one of thousands that end in people uprooting their lives in search of a safe home in the UK.

Away from persecution in his Libyan homeland, the 48-year-old is now poised to take a central role in a growing movement calling for the town to open its arms to those most in need.

To get here, he endured years of living under the fear of death, with threats that his teenage sons would be kidnapped and two-days of imprisonment at the hands of militiamen.

All of this because of his work fighting to improve the rights of women and expose the human rights violations being perpetrated following the removal of Colonel Gaddafi.

The final straw came last year when a poster of his face with a bullet was delivered to his family home in Tripoli.

From then his wife of nearly 20 years, Khadeja, insisted he seek safety elsewhere.

Faraj said: "It's a very hard decision to take to leave my family because I have never left them before for more than two weeks.

"But this time my wife said they needed me to be safe.

"If I stayed they could have kidnapped me again, or worse, and that would just make things harder for them."

Arriving in the UK last November, Faraj waited six months before finding out it he would be allowed to stay in the country.

In May this year he was granted refugee status and made his home in Wokingham but the memories of what happened to him during his kidnap in September 2014 remain.

He said: "The thing that hurt me the most, and still does, is that they used me as a bathroom - they urinated on me.

"It means you are not someone anymore.

"I can forget everything else in my life but this I cannot."
Faraj is now waiting to find out whether his wife and four teenage children will be allowed to join him here.

He added: "When you are in Rome you have to do as the Romans do so I try to live like the people here in the UK.

"But as a family I think we can do something and be a part of the community here."