Syrian refugee stranded at airport for 7 months realizes his dream of Canadian citizenship | 24CA News

Hassan Al Kontar could also be celebrating alone in his Princeton, B.C., resort room, however he looks like he has the assist of a whole nation behind him.

Al Kontar is not any stranger to social isolation. A refugee from the civil conflict in Syria, he made headlines around the globe in 2018 when he was stranded in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport for almost seven months.

While on the airport, he slept wherever he might and ate what he might scrounge. He then spent a number of weeks in jail in Malaysia earlier than a sponsor from Whistler, B.C., helped him discover asylum in Canada.

After a protracted bureaucratic journey, Al Kontar arrived in Canada in November 2018, obtained his everlasting residency and began work with the Canadian Red Cross. It is that work — serving to with flood restoration — that took him to Princeton, the place he’s receiving his Canadian citizenship through a digital ceremony Wednesday.

Watch | Al Kontar displays on changing into a Canadian citizen:

Syrian refugee stranded at airport for 7 months turns into Canadian citizen

Hassan Al Kontar spent seven months residing in a Malaysian airport after fleeing Syria. Now, he is change into a Canadian citizen, though he says he is felt Canadian for for much longer than that.

Speaking to The Early Edition earlier than the ceremony, Al Kontar mentioned he had been awake since 4 a.m. adorning his room with pictures of maple leaves, hardly capable of include his pleasure.

“Today I’m the Canadian Hassan, and I wish all refugees and refugee camps, all of those who dream of freedom in the face of dictators and war criminals, to go through what I’m going through today,” he mentioned.

Al Kontar had labored since 2006 as a advertising insurance coverage supervisor within the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), however his immigration standing was put into limbo when civil conflict broke out in Syria, and the U.A.E. refused to resume his visa. 

If he went house, he knew he’d be conscripted into obligatory army service beneath the Syrian regime. He remained within the U.A.E. illegally till he was caught in 2017 and despatched to Malaysia, one of many few nations that may settle for Syrian travellers.

He was accepted into Malaysia on a three-month vacationer visa, however when it expired, no different nation would take him. That’s when the months of residing in limbo started.

With assist from the B.C. Muslim Association and a lawyer, a group of Canadian sponsors spearheaded by B.C.’s Laurie Cooper managed to safe his launch. 

“These people — who have multiple choices in their life as Canadians to go and travel, to have fun — they decided that the ultimate joy is to help others,” mentioned Al Kontar. “Because of them, my life has been changed.”

Since being in Canada, Al Kontar has launched a e-book about his ordeal titled Man on the Airport: How Social Media Saved My Life – One Syrian’s Story and labored for the Red Cross not solely on flood restoration but in addition on vaccination efforts throughout the pandemic.

But throughout all this time, dreaming of a protected house, he was additionally dreaming of the family members he has been separated from for years in Syria and all that he has missed.

“It cost me 15 years of separation from my family. I never saw my niece. I never hugged my mother … It cost me a father [who] died when I could not visit him or hold his hand when he needed me the most,” he mentioned.

Now, with a newly-minted Canadian passport, he’ll be capable to lastly embrace his family, who relocated to Egypt from Syria 4 months in the past.

He mentioned the prospect of these reunions and the fact he’s not “powerless” and “voiceless” because of the kindness of Canadians make him deeply emotional.

“The whole world judged me because of the place I was born and not because of my personal faults or crimes. 

“Today is a declaration of successful for me.”

And while becoming Canadian was beyond his wildest dreams, Al Kondar said he is now looking forward to realizing another dream … a cup of coffee with his much-missed mom.