Video: Syrian man stuck at Kuala Lumpur airport for 54 days, dubs plight 'The Terminal Part 2'
Follow UsA Syrian man has been stranded inside Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia for over a month and has nowhere to go.
36-year-old Hassan al-Kontar left Syria in 2006 after he feared being arrested for refusing to join the military service and went to United Arab Emirates (UAE) where had worked in marketing and the energy industries until 2011. However, everything changed when the Syrian civil war happened in 2011 which ended in him losing his work permit.
Kontar was deported by UAE authorities to a holding center in Malaysia in January 2017. Malaysia is one of the few countries that offer visas on arrival to Syrian nationals. He was granted a three-month tourist visa after which he tried to save money to travel onwards to Ecuador, which also does not require a visa.
He booked a flight to Ecuador but was rejected to enter the gate of the Turkish Airline as his ticket was canceled. He felt helpless and had nowhere to go but somehow booked another flight to Cambodia which granted Syrians visas on arrival. But, when he arrived he was prohibited from entering and had his passport confiscated, officials said that Syrians could be turned away if they failed to meet the government's guidelines.
Kontar was forced to return to Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), the low-cost carrier terminal, on March 7. He says Malaysia made him pay a fine for "overstaying" his tourist visa and was then "blacklisted," meaning he cannot leave the terminal to enter the country.
He has been making efforts to get out of the airport by sending emails to the right groups and making daily life update videos on Twitter - he has 8,000 followers on the social media portal - dubbing his plight 'The Terminal Part 2'. He has been sleeping on stairways and showering in toilets for disabled people.
The Terminal is a Steven Spielberg-directed film about a man (Tom Hanks) from a fictional country (Krakhozia) who gets stranded at JFK airport after war breaks out at home.
#syrian_stuck_airport#mystory_Hassan #airport_is_my_home#the_terminal_movie
— Hassan Al Kontar (@Kontar81) 7 April 2018
This is my 32 days @JustinTrudeau @tomhanks @guardian @AP @TIME @washingtonpost @nytimes @RT_Erdogan @SophieT @Maisie_Williams @liamcunningham1 @IAMLenaHeadey @nikolajcw @FoxNews @cnni @ABC @TheSun pic.twitter.com/IJUupKmqv6
He is nearly out of money and eats the same food that the airline provides - which is a package of rice and chicken - for every meal. He would occasionally get to indulge in a McDonald's meal or a coffee brought to him by the airport cleaners, who would then charge him an extra 10 Malaysian Ringgit (£1.80) for the service.