Man Stuck in Airport for 7 Months Gets His 'Perfect Ending'

Hassan Al Kontar has felt like a Canadian since the moment he arrived in British Columbia in 2018, after seven months spent in limbo in a Malaysian airport. But now it's official. The Syrian refugee who was previously granted asylum and permanent residency in Canada received his Canadian citizenship in a virtual ceremony on Wednesday, the CBC reports. "There was a time in my life ... a matter of years, where I was stateless. And I'm stateless no more," the 41-year-old dubbed "the man at the airport" tells the outlet from a room decorated with Canadian flags and maple leafs. "Finally [I've] arrived and I have [a] home, and I belong somewhere." He tells the Vancouver Sun, "This day is a perfect ending for my story."

Al Kontar had been working as an insurance marketing manager in the United Arab Emirates for years when civil war broke out in Syria. The UAE refused to renew his visa and Al Kontar refused to return home, where he would've been forced into military service. He was arrested in 2017 and sent to Malaysia, which accepted him on a three-month tourist visa. But when that visa expired, he was left in limbo again. During seven months in Kuala Lumpur's airport, he shared video diaries showcasing the challenges of being stateless, per the BBC. He was arrested in October 2018 by Malaysian authorities. His video diaries, however, caught the attention of the BC Muslim Association, which agreed to sponsor Al Kontar, meaning it would support him for the first year of his life in Canada.

"These people—who have multiple choices in their life as Canadians to go and travel, to have fun—they decided that the ultimate joy is to help others," says Al Kontar, who's been working with the Canadian Red Cross on flood recovery in Princeton, BC, per the CBC. "Because of them, my life has been changed." Al Kontar, who released a 2021 book about his experience, is especially excited to apply for a Canadian passport, which will allow him to visit family members, including his mother, who recently relocated to Egypt with his help. It's been "15 years of separation," a period that included the 2016 death of his father, Al Kontar tells the CBC. He also hopes to help other refugees, per the Sun. (More Canada stories.)