Just how much can one refugee's story change things? Are people who are fleeing their homes a burden or an opportunity for European societies? Syrian refugee, filmmaker, and activist, based in the UK, Hassan Akkad, talked to N1 Television's Ivana Dragicevic on Thursday for the global affairs program Global Fokus.

Akkad arrived to the UK in 2015 during the peak of the so-called migrant crisis, and had filmed his perilous journey via Turkey and France, with the footage later used in a BBC-produced BAFTA-winning documentary series.

He also took and published pictures of struggling immigrant staff at a Covid-hit hospital in London in May and vocally criticised the British government’s breavement scheme, which led to a change in government policy. This earned Akkad praise from other public figures, including pop singer Dua Lipa who chose to name him as her 2020 hero in a campaign to honour British health care workers.

Click above for the full video of Akkad’s conversation with Dragicevic.