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By Yuliya Talmazan
WHISTLER, British Columbia — Hassan al Kontar spent seven months watching the planes come and go while stranded at Kuala Lumpur’s airport.
No country was willing to accept him, so al Kontar, a onetime marketing manager from Syria, was forced to survive on donated airline meals and sleep on the floor of a terminal.
But sitting on a couch in a cabin house in a bustling skiing community in western Canada, al Kontar said his new reality could not be further away from where he was barely two months ago — thanks to the efforts of complete strangers.
“I was asking for safety, I got it in Canada. I was asking for hope, I got it in Canada. I was asking for freedom, I got it in Canada,” al Kontar told NBC News, his soft voice only interrupted by the cozy crackling from a fireplace. It’s a dramatic change from the airport announcement chimes that became the soundtrack to his life in the Malaysian capital.
“I am living the dream,” he added.
Al Kontar, 37, garnered headlines worldwide last year after he started documenting his life through his social media accounts.
In April, a group of Canadians headed by former journalist Laurie Cooper heard about his ordeal and decided to help. They applied to sponsor al Kontar through Canada’s immigration system.
But in October, Malaysian authorities arrested him citing security concerns. Al Kontar spent 58 days in a small cell at a detention facility, and feared being deported back to Syria.
“We didn’t know if he was dead or alive,” said Cooper, who had been in regular contact with al Kontar at the airport until his arrest. “He went into a black hole.”
However, his asylum application was expedited by Canadian officials and he was eventually granted refugee status. On Nov. 26, al Kontar was transferred from the detention center back to the airport — this time, with a one-way ticket to Vancouver.
“It just felt like my son was coming home,” said Cooper, 58, who worked tirelessly to bring al Kontar to Canada.
He now finds himself enjoying a very different life in a winter resort town nearly 8,000 miles away from Kuala Lumpur.
He lives with Cooper, her husband and two children in their Whistler home.
“I feel I belong here somehow,” al Kontar said while petting one of the family’s cats. “The people, especially here in Whistler, they are overwhelming. I never received a single negative look. They keep giving me hugs.”
Al Kontar says he is considering writing a book about his saga.
Before Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, al Kontar worked in the insurance industry in the United Arab Emirates. He was later summoned for military service, but al Kontar says his refusal to return meant the Syrian embassy in the UAE declined to renew his passport in 2012. That meant his work permit couldn’t be renewed, so al Kontar lost his job and remained in the UAE.
Al Kontar was apprehended by UAE authorities in 2017. He was eventually sent to Malaysia — one of the few countries to accept Syrian citizens without a visa for up to 90 days.