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REFUGEE-MALAYSIA-SYRIA-CANADA
Stranded Syrian refugee leaves airport for Canada
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A Syrian refugee who spent several
months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has been granted
permanent residency by Canada and is en route to Vancouver, his lawyer said
Tuesday.
Hassan al-Kontar’s plight became widely known after he shared posts on
social media that showed him surviving on donated airline meals, washing and
giving himself a haircut in the toilets at Kuala Lumpur International
Airport’s Terminal 2.
He had been stuck since March — blocked from entering Malaysia because of
visa issues and barred from travelling to other countries, and was detained
last month by immigration officials.
“I know I look like someone who ran from the stone, middle ages. I’m sorry
for that” the smiling 36-year-old said in a Twitter video Monday, looking
tired and stroking his bushy beard.
“For the last eight years, it was hard, long journey. The last ten months,
it was very hard and cold.”
Malaysian officials earlier said they were going to work with Syrian
authorities to deport him back to his war-torn homeland.
But his lawyer Andrew Brouwer said they brought Kontar directly to the
Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday before he was put on a Vancouver-bound flight.
Brouwer said his client was recognised by Canada as a refugee and was
granted permanent residency under the country’s refugee sponsorship
programme.
“We were of course very pleased that Malaysia appeared to agree and abide
by international law,” he said.
In the video on his Twitter account Kontar said he was in transit in
Taiwan and that he would be reaching his “final destination” the following
day.
“I could not do it without the support and the prayers from all of you,”
he said.
Kontar is not the only asylum seeker who has been left in limbo at an
airport for a long period of time.
In 2015 an Iraqi family spent more than two months in an empty smoking
cubicle in a Moscow airport, relying on passengers to bring them food and
water.
Kontar’s case also recalls the 2004 film “The Terminal,” in which Tom
Hanks plays a man who finds himself stuck in a New York airport after his
government collapses, rendering his papers useless.
Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has
left more than 350,000 people dead.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1314 hrs