{"id":23587,"date":"2018-11-28T15:24:39","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T15:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23587"},"modified":"2018-11-28T15:24:39","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T15:24:39","slug":"syrian-stranded-at-malaysia-airport-for-months-arrives-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23587","title":{"rendered":"Syrian stranded at Malaysia airport for months arrives in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Syrian man who had been stranded at a terminal at a Malaysian airport for the past seven months<\/span>\u00a0has finally arrived in Canada<\/a>, ending a long ordeal that highlighted\u00a0asylum seekers’ often bizarre quest for refuge.<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Hassan Al Kontar landed at\u00a0<\/span>Vancouver airport, wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt. He became a permanent resident upon landing, since Canada had already recognised him as a refugee.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

His ordeal began when he was refused a new Syrian passport while working in the United Arab Emirates<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old was afraid of returning home because he refused to enlist in the army. His only choice was to go to Malaysia<\/a>, one of the few countries where Syrians did not need a visa.<\/p>\n

After outstaying his Malaysian tourist visa, he paid a penalty before attempting to depart but was not allowed to board his Ecuador-bound flight. He similarly tried to go to Cambodia but was deported back to Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has left more than 350,000 people dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ordeal shared on social media<\/h2>\n

Al Kontar ended up at the airport terminal’s domestic transfer lounge, where he spent the past seven months looking for options.<\/span><\/p>\n

He took to social media to document<\/a> his everyday life, catching the attention of a group of Canadian volunteers who filed a refugee application on his behalf in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With processing time for refugee applications lasting up to 23 months, a Canadian group lobbied with the authorities\u00a0to let him into the country until his legal status was formalised, but to no avail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Things took a turn for the worse when he was arrested<\/a> by Malaysian police last month and sent to a detention centre where authorities threatened to deport him to Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his paperwork for asylum was cleared in Canada.<\/p>\n

Al Kontar said he had been too excited since his arrival to sleep. “In real life, there are moments that are more beautiful than the dream itself.”<\/p>\n

He said the first thing he did on stepping out of the Vancouver airport into the rain was to breathe in his new surroundings.<\/p>\n

“For me, walking on the street again and smelling the fresh air, it’s not a normal thing: It’s the sound and smell of freedom.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Syrian man who had been stranded at a terminal at a Malaysian airport for the past seven months\u00a0has finally arrived in Canada, ending a long ordeal that highlighted\u00a0asylum seekers’ often bizarre quest for refuge. On Monday night, Hassan Al Kontar landed at\u00a0Vancouver airport, wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt. He became a permanent resident upon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}