“We have seen terrible things. Terrible,” says eight-year-old Bassam. “There were tanks everywhere, and from our house we constantly heard the sound of rifles.”

Though the scene is from recent memory, it could describe most of his childhood.

Bassam and his family – father Ali Mohammed, mother Nour, and brother Kinan – are originally from Syria, but they have lived in Libya for the past five years.

They left their war-torn country in search of a better life. But after years of moving ...