Back in 2018, a Syrian refugee, Hassan Al-Kontar, was stranded at and lived in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for seven months, from 7 March 2018 until his arrest on 2 October 2018.
It all started for Hassan when he left his home country over an arrest warrant for avoiding military service. After leaving Syria, he lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 2006 until 2011, when the Syrian civil war began and caused him to lose his work permit.
The UAE refused to renew his residency visa, so he continued to live there illegally for a while. Then, in 2016, he was caught and sent to a deportation facility, which led to him being forwarded to Malaysia, where he got stranded at KLIA.
Considering Hassan rejected offers to live in a number of Southeast Asian countries as he wanted to move to Canada, the Malaysian authorities then ultimately made the decision to deport him.
While this incident made international headlines, mainly after Hassan shared multiple videos on his day-to-day routine of living in KLIA, which many likened to the 2004 Hollywood film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks, many do not know that Hassan wasn’t the only one who had lived in KLIA for a duration of time.
There are 2 other people who were also stranded and lived in KLIA, both of whom are Palestinian nationals.
Iyad el-Baghdadi
A prominent democracy activist, Iyad el-Baghdadi, was stranded at KLIA for 26 days, from 13 May to 8 June 2014. He is most famously known for taking to social media to poke fun at regional leaders during the 2010-2011 Arab Spring, a series of pro-democracy anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions.
During that time, Iyad, who was staying in the UAE, was called in by the country’s immigration department and given 2 options: Be arrested or be deported. Iyad chose to be deported, and he ended up in Malaysia.
In 1948, Iyad’s grandparents were among the Palestinians who were forced out of their family home in Jaffa by the newly formed Israel. Iyad was born in Kuwait and raised in the UAE, though he has Egyptian travel documents of a Palestinian refugee.
Due to this, the UAE deported Iyad to Malaysia as immigration officers told him he would be accepted as a Palestinian refugee. However, when he arrived in Malaysia, he was told that he wouldn’t be allowed past the passport control area.
From then, he was left to wander about KLIA where he spent his time sitting at cafes, reading and worrying about the safety of his wife and child, who was born while he was stranded at KLIA.
Thankfully, 26 days later, on 8 June 2014, he was allowed into Malaysia with the assistance of friends, activists and the Palestinian Embassy. His wife and son were later brought to Malaysia, though Iyad then made his way to Norway, where he spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum, in hopes that the country would grant him and his family asylum.
Ahmed Kanan
Having been stranded at KLIA for 54 days from 21 May to 13 July in 2013, Ahmed Kanan’s biggest issue was his Palestinian passport.
In 2012, Ahmed Kanan was a 22-year-old tourism student who was studying in Russia. After a year there, he was told he would have to renew his visa in Syria, the country in which he grew up. Though, considering the Arab Spring, heading back to Syria would mean death for him.
So, he opted to travel to Ukraine in hopes of continuing his studies there, but he was barred from entering the country. He then decided to apply to study at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Malaysia, but his application was rejected.
At this point, he was already in Malaysia, and his month-long visa had expired, prompting him to travel to Laos in hopes of spending a little bit of time there to renew his Malaysian visa. However, Laos not only blocked him from entering their country but also sent him right back to Malaysia, where he was given a 7-day tourist visa.
From Malaysia, Kanan tried to go to Egypt, but the airlines rejected him due to his Palestinian passport. He then went to Turkey, where things escalated. The Turkish authorities allegedly left him without a passport.
“I told them that I am from Syria. They took my passport and asked me to wait,” Kanan shared, adding that he waited in a room alone for 2 hours before the immigration officers returned without his passport.
“He told me that they do not have my passport, and they put me in a room for 12 hours. After that, they sent me back to Malaysia by force.”
Now back in Malaysia again, and this time, without a passport, he ended up staying in KLIA for 54 days. During that time, he was at the mercy of kind passengers and staff who bought him food and helped him wash his clothes.
“There were a lot of passengers all over the world, so I started to tell my story to some of the passengers. Some of them gave me money, and some of them bought me a meal. I was eating one meal per day,” he said.
He also endured hardships in getting his passport back, though after much back and forth, the United Nations (UN) ultimately recovered and returned it to him. He also managed to contact a journalist who published his story, which brought about his release after 54 days of living in KLIA.
Kanan was granted a 30-day Malaysian visa and went to stay with a friend in Melaka.
What would you have done if you were in their shoes? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
