Front Burner - After seven months trapped inside an airport, a refugee calls Canada home

Episode Date: November 29, 2018

Hassan Al Kontar is now safe in Canada. But for seven long months, the Syrian refugee was stuck inside the transit area of Kuala Lumpur Airport, terrified of being deported back to Syria. Today, Hassan shares how he survived being stranded, the psychological toll of two months in detention in Malaysia, and how a group of Canadians changed this life by raising money to bring him to Whistler, B.C., as a privately-sponsored refugee.

My name is Graham Isidor. I have a progressive eye disease called keratoconus. Unmaying I'm losing my vision has been hard, but explaining it to other people has been harder. Lately, I've been trying to talk about it. Short Sighted is an attempt to explain what vision loss feels like by exploring how it sounds. By sharing my story, we get into all the things you don't see

about hidden disabilities. Short Sighted, from CBC's Personally, available now. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, how are you? Thank you for coming. Welcome to Canada. Thank you very much. So nice of you. Thank you. This is Shawkat from the BC Muslim Association. He's the one who gave you the sponsorship spot to be here. Thank you very much. So nice of you. Thank you. This is Shawkat from the BC Muslim Association.

He's the one who gave you the sponsorship spot to be here. Thank you very much. Came to the most amazing place on the planet. Most amazing people? I don't know. Hi, I'm Jamie Posa. One day when I have children, I will absolutely tell them not to forget that the Canadian people changed my life and theirs as well. That was Hassan Al-Khantar.

And on Monday, he arrived here, in Canada. As you can hear, it was a very emotional scene at the Vancouver International Airport. And that's because Hassan is a Syrian refugee. And his journey to Canada, it was anything but easy. For seven months, he survived inside a Malaysian airport. He was trapped and terrified that he would be deported to his war-torn country. Today, Hassan Al-Khantour, he shares his unbelievable story with us. From how he managed to live in that airport, to his darkest days in a Malaysian detention center.

And finally, to how a group of Canadians changed his life forever. I call her a lot of names, but she is the real face of hope. That's coming up on Frontburner. I'm going to turn my notifications off here, just a sec. Okay, and I'll bring the Skype, and I'll get the headset set up. Excellent. It's sound, right? Just sound. They can't see how beautiful you are.

He had marriage offers. That's Laurie Cooper, and she's helping Hassan, who's incredibly charming, as you can probably tell. Laurie Cooper is one of the Canadians who helped bring Hassan to Canada as a privately sponsored refugee. And they were at her home, a little log cabin in Whistler, B.C. That's where Hassan is staying and where he was when I spoke with him earlier this week. Oh, we have someone else on the line. That's me. Hi, Hassan. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. My name is Jamie.

To understand Hassan's story, I really want to start at the beginning and the events that led up to Hassan's life in the airport. I was not allowed to leave the airport. I could not leave the airport because there was only to enter Malaysia, which the Malaysian authorities rejected. So I could not enter Malaysia and I could not leave to any other country because I don't have visa. The airlines will not allow me in.

I was stuck only at the airport because I have no other choice. Hassan, can you take me through what your days were like there? What did you eat and where did you sleep? You will face two types of problems at the airport. The major one is how to get yourself out of the airport. So I was starting my day. And when I said I'm starting my day, it's not a matter of day and night. Sometimes I wake 2 a.m., 3 a.m. Whenever I wake...

Good morning, everyone from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It's almost 4.30 a.m. now. I'm trying to sleep. With the little time I was sleeping, it was my beginning day. So I was sending emails, communicating with others, trying to find a solution for my problem. Then the second type of problems, the temporary, daily, small problems, which become a major issue. How to take a shower, when to take a shower, how to clean your clothes, where to dry them because there's no privacy at the airport. Where to sleep with the lights always on and the flight announcements always there, everywhere. From now on, if I am hearing it, you are hearing it with me.

And how to eat, when to eat, how to get the basics, actually. At the beginning, I was suffering because my clothes were always dirty. But at the end, I found some of the workers there who accepted to take my clothes to their houses with an extra, of course. I called them friends with benefits. So I was giving them money and they will wash it at their houses and bring it back to me. For the shower, I was trying to choose a time where there's less passenger, always after midnight. And I was using the special needs people facility because

less people will approach it. And the water was always cold. so I was having the feeling that I'm doing the icebox challenge each and every day for the last nine months but with time I kept reminding myself that this is not the main problem I was encouraging myself by saying I never heard someone died because he was sleeping on a chair so that that was okay with me. The airlines provide me three meals a day, but it was the same meal three days a day for the last seven months. What did you eat? Rice and chicken, some rice and chicken, yeah. But sometimes when I had some cash, I will ask one of the staff

because I did not have an access to the duty-free so no restaurants or coffee shop even a cup of coffee was a little bit of challenge there so I was asking one of the staff with an extra money of course to bring me a meal of McDonald's meal or a cup of coffee I just got some good news and I think it's worth to share it. I just got the chocolate. Just to change the mood and to feel that I'm still a normal person who can eat whatever he wants, like the other people, normal people outside. Hassan, could you tell me a little bit about the area that you were confined to? It's a long corridor.

It's not that long, three or four minutes the distance. And a bunch of some chairs. And I found a spot under the escalator where I was sleeping with an access to two bathrooms. And that was it. Was there a moment that was particularly difficult for you when you were in the airport? A lot of it, but I can recall once it was in late July with the time difference between Kuala Lumpur and Syria. Kuala Lumpur is ahead, five hours ahead. It was like 11 a.m. when I checked on Facebook that there is something going on in my city itself. And it was huge, three bombing.

It was like 5 a.m. Syria time. Three bombers and ISIS has just made a huge massacre by slaughtering innocent women and kids who were sleeping. So immediately I was trying to call my family not to get out of the house. I come to know that they are awake already because there was one of the explosions near the house. So that moment I felt powerless, totally powerless. I could not do anything. That was one of the most difficult days in my life. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I was looking at your Twitter account today, how you posted images of you knitting or exercising or tending to plants in the airport.

Can you tell me a little bit more about why you wanted to share your experiences? To enlighten people in general. people with a smile, with some statement, is a better way than to complain and to be sad or anger, out of sad or anger, because people in general, they have their own lives, their own problems, their own misery, and they need to deal with it. So it's a better way to give people a positive energy that it's better than action out of anger. positive energy that it's better than action out of anger. It's like someone forced you to join a yoga class. You don't want to.

You prefer a dance class. No matter you are stuck at an airport or outside, it's still weekend. It's a party time. It's 2,208 hours of waiting. ومن خارج هناك محافظة ومشاركة وانتظران 2208 ساعة لذا الناس الذين يكونون سعيدين أو مغلقين لأن الطائرات تتوقف بعض الأحيان أظهروا لي نفسكم أي شخص منكم

الذي يملك رقم عميل أرسله لي يجب أن أسرع سيارته Please send it to me. I need to borrow his suit. I also noticed that you posted about your brother's wedding. What was it like to have missed that? Watching them happy made my days that time because I want them to be happy. I did not want to be the obstacle in their way. And I was trying to show them that I'm okay and it's just a bad time and it shall pass. So he got my full blessing. Where are they now, your brother and his wife?

They are in Syria itself. I just closed the line with them. They are happy. I could tell now that my family in general, they are extremely happy because I am safe and legal. They are now fine because I am fine. What did they say to you today? Try to get some sleep. They are worried about my health. I'm trying, but I could not. They keep asking me to send photos, as much as photos as I can, but with the interviews,

I cannot communicate with them a lot. They are extremely happy, as I said, yes. Would you like to see them come here to Canada? One day, of course. Of course, I would be glad to. I did not see them since 2008.

I lost my father in 2016. I could not attend the funeral. I lost my brother's wedding because I am wanted in Syria. Even my sister, she lost her husband in 2013. I could not be there. So I almost, not almost, I missed all the opportunities and the times they need me the most to stand next to

them and to be with them. I just want another hug with my mother and see my brother and sister, of course. I hope you get that soon. Thank you very much. So kind of you. Thank you. Just to go back to the airport, when you were in the airport, were you worried you would be kicked out or arrested?

Yes, especially at the last days. I knew that something very weird was going on because they were extremely not happy with me, I will say. No one likes a bad propaganda. So explaining my situation, somehow some people explained that I am criticizing the human rights issues in Malaysia itself. And they decided at the end to act and end this because it's not a healthy situation. And they decided to end it.

So can we talk about that? What happened in October? Your situation changed dramatically. They showed up, the police, and they arrested me, sent me to police first. Then they transferred me to immigration and I stayed in the detention lockup for 57 days. Can you tell me what it was like in detention in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia? There's no good lockup or prisoner or jail. It's all bad, even if you are in a hotel room.

I'm trying not to affect others in a bad way or to harm others by saying, criticize it because there's other Syrian refugees who still need help and Malaysia still granted us an arrival visa. So I don't want to harm anyone. Were you hurt when you were there? Physically, no. What was going through your head when you were in detention in Malaysia? detention in Malaysia? I could not hear the voice of my family or their news for 57 days and that got me the most worried. I was worried also that I will be deported to Syria but some deep inside myself I knew that the Canadian people, the Canadian volunteers, Mrs. Laurie Cooper, Mr. Andrew Prower, the lawyer, they are doing their best and they are going to do it. And they will be successful. I never doubted for a moment that we would get him here.

I didn't know how long it would take, but I had absolute 100% faith. long it would take but I had absolute 100% faith and I hope that you knew when you couldn't talk to anybody in detention that I was fighting and Andrew was fighting like I had confident or I just wanted decided not to lose the hope I do want to get to the Canadians. But first, can I ask you, if you had been deported back to Syria, can you help people understand what could have happened to you?

I like to believe that I could be, I would be the needed sacrifice for others to understand what's really going with the refugee, Syrian people. To be deported to Syria, it means that they will capture me the minute I put a foot on the airport. I was wanted for both the army and the intelligence agencies.

After the media, I declared my political opinion regarding the war in Syria, so I become wanted for the intelligence as well. So no one knows for sure what will happen, but I will be at least jailed and God knows for how long if I did not disappear. No one knows. But maybe others will come to know what's really going on and decide to do something. To decide to do something about the war in Syria? They needed sacrifice. When you say others will decide to do something, can you tell me? I mean by others, I mean by other the international community and organization

to know that I paid the price of refusing the war. And they should do something with the system because since 2011, the system failed us as Syrians. And it was unfair and unjust because we are not bad guys. I want to now talk about the Canadians. While you were stranded in the airport and in detention, as you mentioned before, a group of Canadians were trying to bring you here as a sponsored refugee. And can you tell me

how they got in touch with you and what that made you feel like? They heard the story through the media. One of the Syrian people who knows them already, she knew my story and she reached them. And they immediately reached me to understand the situation. And with time, they knew that there is no way to get me out of the airport unless they will sponsor me to come to Canada. With time, when I become personally involved and know them in a personal level, they restore my faith in humanity that yes individuals when they decide to act they can be they can make the difference and change someone's

life and uh in general i have this idea about hope that people in general describe hope with words. But for me, it's both word and photo now. Whenever I think about hope, their photos will come to my mind as well. So they become with time the face of hope. And they are incredible people. Can you tell me a little bit about them, the people that brought you here? Well, I call them the real avengers team the real avengers yeah yes uh they led by uh mrs laurie cooper uh she is my canadian mother now and the minute we saw each other we got the feeling that we already knows each other and there's no need to introduce ourselves to

know our habits, the daily habits, because we already knew each other. So we were communicating for seven months. So there's also Mr. Andrew Power, an amazing refugee lawyer who did it for free and because he believed in our rights as refugees to live and to be safe. He did an amazing job. There's other people like Stephen Watt. He's in Toronto. He's like a brother.

He's technically a family. He visited me even at the airport. He went there at the airport and visited me there. Oh, he visited you at the airport in Malaysia what was that like? I could not believe it that there's a humans who are doing it out of because they believe

in human rights they don't want anything they just believe in human rights and they decide to act so and they did it and they are they showed a great example that individuals can do a difference and they are the real hero here in the story because they had a choice they have a choice in their life yet they decided not to and they decide to act i i saw a picture of you from

earlier this week uh hugging l at the airport in Vancouver. Can you tell me what was going through your head after these many, many months and years, what it felt like to be in Vancouver and to be hugging Lori? I realized that there's a moment in life, in real life, I realized that there is a moment in life, in real life, it could be more amazing, more beautiful than the dream itself. So it was a rare moment. I cannot explain it by words because sometimes you can feel things but you cannot describe it but it was both love and care and home, actually.

It felt safe. And now I can just rest. Hassan, welcome to Canada. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Well, I've pulled myself together now. It sounds like Hassan is going to get some time to rest now with the help of Laurie Cooper in Whistler, B.C. And he's got some other goals, too. My name is Hassan Kontar.

I'm 37 years old. Originally from Syria and single. I will start working on that. I could not before, but I will go start working on that. It's on my list. Yeah, although you're getting marriage proposals already from all over the world. Lucky me. But where was that for the last 37 years? I don't know. Yeah. But it happens at the end. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner.

For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts. It's 2011 and the Arab Spring is raging. A lesbian activist in Syria starts a blog. She names it Gay Girl in Damascus. Am I crazy? Maybe. As her profile grows, so does the danger.

The object of the email was please read this while sitting down. It's like a genie came out of the bottle and you can't put it back. Gay Girl Gone. Available now.