This Man From Syria Has Been Forced To "Live" In klia2 For Over A Month Now
Trapped in transit.
By Sadho Ram — 13 Apr 2018, 07:05 PM
36-year-old Hassan al-Kontar is trapped in the transit section of Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) for over a month now
Hassan has been stuck at klia2 since 7 March, making the days he has spent at the airport to 37 and counting. His situation is partly as a consequence of the civil war in Syria, the country he is from.
According to BBC, Hassan, who has been working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2006, lost his work permit and his job in 2016.
Following which, in January 2017, he was deported from the UAE to Malaysia, which still grants visa on arrival to Syrians. He was given a three-month tourist visa.
Hassan thought the three-month tourist visa would be enough for him to come up with a better plan to find a country that will take him in. You see he cannot go back to Syria because he had left his home to avoid conscription in the Syrian army.
"I decided that I wanted to try to go to Ecuador so I saved up enough money to buy a plane ticket on Turkish Airways. But for some reason, they did not allow me on the flight and I found myself back at square one," he told BBC.
Hassan then flew to Cambodia but was prohibited from entering the country.
So on 7 March this year, he returned, once again, to klia2.
And since then he has been stuck there after not getting a new tourist visa to enter the country because he had overstayed his last tourist visa.
Hassan says he has been "blacklisted" in Malaysia, and that he is now unable to leave the airport and re-enter the country, the BBC reported.
According to a report in the Malay Mail Online, a source with the Immigration Department at klia2 said that they are aware of Hassan and his situation, "but he needs to go back to Syria". However, going back to Syria is something which Hassan doesn't want to do.
"I don't know what to do. I have no-one to advise me on where I can go. I really need help because I believe the worst is yet to come," he told BBC, adding that there is an arrest warrant against his name in Syria after he avoided military service.
Meanwhile, the Immigration Department source quoted by the Malay Mail Online explained that they "understand that this is a difficult time for him, but it was wrong of him to have gone to Cambodia, now he is in a situation that will be difficult to solve. We also don’t want him to make it seem like it is Malaysia’s fault."
Hassan has now run out of clean clothes and is unable to take a proper shower. Earlier he tweeted this photo of his "bed" at klia2.
Meanwhile, he told the BBC that he has spoken with airport officials and the United Nations. Human Rights Watch is also involved.
"The authorities here are interviewing me and I have filled out some reports," he told BBC, adding that he does not know whether that will lead to anything.
Earlier today, 13 April, Hassan tweeted a vlog to his followers, who have been trying to find any temporary solutions for him, saying, "I need a permanent solution, not a temporary one"