A playwright who fled from Iraq where he faced death is now in Bradford helping other people through the Red Cross.

Dana Jalal escaped death at the hands of Saddam Hussein supporters before leaving Iraq and embarking on a remarkable journey to freedom.

Now Mr Jalal, 29, is using his experience to work for the Red Cross, helping other asylum seekers and refugees settle into the city.

His escape through mountains, through Turkey and France and across the Channel cost him 8,000 US dollars.

After paying an initial 3,000 US dollars, Mr Jalal was smuggled out of Sulaimanya north of Iraq, enduring a 14-day trek in freezing conditions across mountains before crossing the Turkish border where he obtained false passport to get to Istanbul.

In Istanbul he lived for almost a month in a small, cramped flat with other asylum seekers waiting for a lorry to take them to France and on to England.

"In Istanbul we were trapped like animals in a tiny flat. We weren't allowed to go out and relied on messengers to bring us food. At that time if the Turkish authorities had found us we would have been sent back and killed. We were terrified.

"When the lorry was ready the journey took eight days, with only a bottle of water and some biscuits. We were told to shut up and not make a sound."

Once in England Mr Jalal and the other two people in the back of the lorry were ordered to jump out near a wooded area near a motorway.

"They just left us there. We walked to a petrol station and asked them to call the police who asked us about our nationality, how we got here and why we were seeking asylum. The police took us to a hotel in Southend-On-Sea where I stayed for four months until the Home Office gave me permission to stay. The National Asylum Support Services sent me to Bradford where I got a hotel room in Manningham.

"I worked as a volunteer translator at Bradford Refugee Centre before getting a job with the Red Cross and its Orientation Service." Mr Jalal said his job enabled him to offer the kind of support he himself needed but didn't get when he arrived in Britain. Mr Jalal tries to keep in touch with his family who live close to Baghdad. His 16-year-old brother is also in hiding from the authorities after trying to stage an exhibition of his work.

"Because our family had ideas of freedom, we were called Communists and they said we were anti-religion.

"I was brought up to want freedom of expression so I wrote poems, plays and articles about it - that's why the authorities wanted rid of me.

"I produced a play expressing my views and the authorities told me to stop. When I didn't they came to the theatre to arrest me but I wasn't there. My mother told me to get away."

Mr Jalal is fearful of the threat of war. "Everyone in Iraq hates Saddam but they live in fear and can't say it publicly. I fear many will die. It's like watching a game of chess or some kind of drama on stage and not being able to do anything about it - except wait to see how it ends."