VOYAGE OF THE BANNED
In the chaotic days following President Donald Trump’s travel ban, Khaled Almilaji became the public face of its victims. On Friday night, a joyful reunion with his wife in Toronto brought his ordeal to an end
In January, Khaled Almilaji’s face was on news websites and papers around the world, symbolizing the chaos and heartache following U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting seven predominantly Muslim countries.
On Friday night, his face was a study in emotions: relief, fatigue and overwhelming joy at seeing his wife after a forced six-month absence.
A short aid mission in Turkey at the border of his native Syria had left the 35-year-old doctor in limbo. Because of the travel ban, Almilaji was refused reentry into the U.S., where he was pursuing a postgraduate degree in public health and where his pregnant wife was waiting for him to come home to Rhode Island.
That agonizing 174-day separation was stretched about an hour and a half longer at Pearson airport, as Almilaji’s wife waited anxiously for him to clear customs, craning her neck to get a better view past the sliding doors of the arrival hall gate.
“It had been a very stressful experience, not knowing what’s going on. We are just excited the ordeal is finally over,” Jehan Mouhsen said as she waited in Terminal 1.
She reflected on the “great experience” she and her husband had in the U.S., and of the American friends who tried to help them.
“We have no grievances against Americans,” said Mouhsen, a 26-year-old physician whose baby is due in August.
“But the travel ban was just so unnecessary and unfair. We are glad Canada and U of T have stepped up. It’s a great relief.”
After catching sight of her smiling husband, Mouhsen hurried to the edge of the arrival ramp and straight into Almilaji’s arms.
The couple held on to each other tightly, both of them tearing up and swaying side to side. Almilaji placed his hand on Mouhsen’s belly.
His first order of business? Almilaji didn’t hesitate. “Catching up with my wife!” he said. “I’m really excited! Finally! Six months!”
Almilaji, an ear, nose and throat doctor, said his first priority is his home country, Syria, which he hopes to serve through his studies.
He will be continuing his interrupted postgraduate study in public health at the University of Toronto.
“I’m glad that I get the chance to improve my knowledge, and one day I can go back to our country and help with rebuilding the health system there,” he said. “The University of Toronto gave me another chance after we lost that chance in the U.S. I’m so grateful.”
Almilaji was well known in humanitarian aid circles in Turkey and Syria for saving lives, vaccinating children for polio and treating prisoners tortured by Bashar Assad’s regime during Syria’s ongoing civil war.
Along with two Canadian physicians working on the ground in Turkey, Almilaji helped established the Canadian International Medical Relief Organization in 2012 to provide medical support and treatment to displaced Syrians by sneaking across the border.
During a polio outbreak in a rebelcontrolled area of Syria in 2013, Almilaji led a vaccination campaign in the conflict zone. He and other volunteers risked their lives, smuggling medical supplies through government checkpoints and ultimately immunizing 1.3 million children.
In 2014, Mouhsen, a Syrian born in Montenegro, was introduced to Almilaji by a mutual friend. They were married in July 2016 in Germany, where Almilaji’s family members are in exile. A month after their wedding, the couple arrived at Brown University’s campus in Providence, R.I., on Almilaji’s scholarship.
Almilaji was on his way back to the U.S. from Turkey on Jan. 7 when he was barred from boarding the flight. His multiple-entry student visa had been revoked. With help from senators in Rhode Island and from Brown University, Almilaji returned to the U.S. Embassy in Turkey on Jan. 20 to apply for a new visa.
It was a week before Trump issued his first executive order barring people from seven majority-Muslim countries — including Syria — from entering the U.S. for 90 days.
When the order took effect on Jan. 27, Almilaji suddenly became a poster boy for the infamous ban and his story, as reported by The Associated Press, spread around the world.
Almilaji’s application for a new student visa was denied. Although Trump’s travel bans have since been halted by American courts, the damage has been done for many travellers from those seven countries. Families, including Almilaji and Mouhsen’s, have been kept apart.
With help from private donors, U of Traised enough money to pay for the couple’s living expenses, while the university administration agreed to waive Almilaji’s tuition. The Aleppo native will pick up his postgraduate studies on health informatics this summer.