A family of Syrian refugees landed Friday at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire, completing a journey that almost never happened.
The Mahmoud family was originally scheduled to arrive only days after President Trump signed his executive order on immigration. The temporary ban stopped travel for people from seven predominately Muslim countries and indefinitely banned Syrian refugees from entering the U.S.
With the nationwide stay on Trump's order upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court, the family boarded a plane in Turkey and headed for their new home in Lowell.
Jeff Thielman, CEO of the International Institute of New England, a refugee resettlement agency in Lowell, greeted the Mahmouds at baggage claim at the airport.
Twenty-four-year-old Rashid speaks for the family when he says it's been a long journey.
"Exhausted," he said. "Just tired."
Read the rest of the story from WBUR.
This report comes from the New England News Collaborative: Eight public media companies coming together to tell the story of a changing region, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Copyright 2017 Vermont Public Radio
