Syrian man wins asylum after seven months living at airport
For seven months, Hassan alKontar was trapped in airconditioned purgatory.
Stranded in Terminal 2 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, he slept under stairwells and lived off leftover chicken-andrice dinners from AirAsia flights. He documented his daily life in video diaries that he posted on Twitter, inspiring comparisons to Tom Hanks’ character in the 2004 film The Terminal.
Kontar, 37, left his home in Syria for the United Arab Emirates in 2006 to avoid mandatory military service. Then in, 2011, civil war broke out and the Syrian Government refused to renew his passport. He feared that if he returned to Syria, he would be forced to join the military or thrown in jail.
When his passport expired, his work permit also became invalid. After working illegally for several years, he was arrested and told to leave the UAE.
Kontar flew to Malaysia, one of the few countries where Syrians have a chance of getting a visa. He was granted a threemonth tourist visa, and immediately began working to save money for a ticket to Ecuador. But when he showed up for his flight to South America in February, he was turned away at the gate for reasons that remain unclear.
Kontar flew to Cambodia instead, but wasn’t granted permission to enter the country. Finally, he returned to Malaysia, only to be told that he couldn’t reenter the country because he had overstayed his visa. Out of money and out of options, he made the terminal his home.
Kontar’s video diaries got international attention, and thousands of people began following his near-daily updates. Among them was Laurie Cooper, a complete stranger living in Whistler, British Columbia, who, along with a group of friends, petitioned Canada’s immigration minister to admit Kontar as a refugee. Through a crowdfunding campaign, they raised the fee required for citizens to privately sponsor a refugee for resettlement, then waited to see if his application would be approved.
Arriving in Vancouver, Kontar made one thing clear: he was done with airports for good.
– Washington Post