Refugees: ‘I speak English. I have a degree. I could be a good citizen’

”I would love to go to Ireland. I speak English. I have a degree in biology. I could be a good citizen for your country but your government won’t release information for Syrians. It takes so long to get all the papers for Ireland and we are desperate.

“If the Irish government tells us we can come, it’s our dream come true.”

Madj, from Aleppo, Syria, fled his home seven months ago after being called up for military service. He is waiting in Belgrade’s squalid makeshift camp, where thousands of people pass daily en route to Hungary where they hope trains or buses will take them to Austria or Germany.