Name: Abdul Karim Sorosh

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, educated, volunteer teacher, experienced Geologist, FULLY FUNDED.

Risk: At risk of being tortured and killed by the Taliban if returned home.

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Due to working in the presidential election campaign, Karim was captured and beaten by the Taliban. Luckily, he fled to Indonesia by boat in 2014.

While living in the detention centre, he volunteered as a teacher. He is also a Geologist and his hope now is to find a group of Canadian friends who can help him come to Canada where he can work, study and reunite with his family one day.

His Early Life

Karim was born in January 1990, in a village in the Jaghori district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan. His father always encouraged him to get proper education, and Karim finished his education in Geological Engineering at Kabul University in 2012. In the same year, his father died due to an unknown illness. Despite being educated, Karim could not find a job to support his family, so he made himself busy taking care of his farming in the village.

On April 20, 2014, he began working as an accountant for Ashraf Ghani’s first presidential campaign in Jaghori. He was happy because he finally got a relevant job according to his education, though it was dangerous for him. The opportunity soon turned out into an incident. In the end of April, Karim and his friend, Khalil took the campaign reports to Kabul to the central office. While returning to their village with the posters for the Election Day, they were intercepted by the Taliban in the area called Dasht-e-Qarabagh.

Captured and Beaten

“Fear grew in my gut seeing their angry faces and the documents we were carrying had just signed our death bill.”

After checking everyone’s Nation Identity Cards, the Taliban separated Karim and his friend from the rest and began beating them.

Upon asking the reason, the Taliban told other passengers that Karim and Khalil had been working against Sharia law by helping Ashraf Ghani who was according to the Taliban American minion. Then the Taliban told other passengers to come back the next day and take the dead bodies of Karim and his friend if they cared about these two.

After getting all the documents of Karim and his friend, the Taliban took them to an unknown place where they were locked inside a worn-out house with their hands tight behind their back.

“We both were in terror of what was happening.”

During the night prayer, Karim saw through the small window members of the Taliban heading for prayer. His friend, Khalil suggested escaping from there. They both untied each other’s hands and escaped through the small window.

Leaving Home

They kept going the whole night until they reached a police station. Hearing their story, policemen fed them and drove them to Ghazni. From there, Karim and his friend went to Kabul by car where they contacted the campaign office and shared everything with them.

“I was bluntly told from the office that I was no longer useful to them.”

After Karim contacted his mother and maternal uncle, they both advised him not to return to Jaghori and to find a way to leave Afghanistan because the Taliban were present everywhere around the country.

Initially, he decided to go to Iran, but the people smuggler told him that it was very dangerous at that time and some of his passengers had been caught on the way.

“I begged the people smuggler for a way out to save my life, and he suggested me to go to Australia via Indonesia.”

His Journey to Indonesia

After Karim arranged to pay for his travel with the help of his uncle, on June 10, 2014, he flew from Kabul to Dubai where he stayed for 5 days. On June 15, he flew to Malaysia and stayed there for 10 days. Then he went to Medan, Indonesia by boat. After arriving in Jakarta, he registered himself with the UNHCR on July 23, 2014.

Life in the Detention Centre

Due to not having the right to work or way to support himself in the new country, he went to Manado Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. After waiting for 6 months in front of the immigration building where he slept under the rain and sun, he was transferred to a detention centre in Tanjung Pinang in December 2014.

It was both relieving and perplexing for Karim to finally get transferred to the detention center, because going there meant a faster case process and being taken under the IOM support. It was a price every asylum seeker was set to pay.

While living there, he taught Farsi to other refugees and kept himself busy doing regular exercise to stay healthy.

“Seeing my students learning how to write and read made the difficulty of living in the detention centre bearable for me.”

Karim was recognized as a refugee by the UNHCR in July 2017.

His Life Now

After spending three years inside the detention centre, he was freed and was transferred to Bhadra Refugee Accommodation in Tanjung Pinang.

Since the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, life for Karim’s family members has gotten harder. Karim hopes to help them but he has been stuck in Indonesia where he cannot work, get proper education and even have a bank account.

It is Possible!

“My dream is to leave this uncertainty behind and live with freedom in a peaceful country where I can work and be able to support my family.”

There is a way. Since Karim is officially certified as a refugee by the UNHCR – unlike the vast majority of the world’s refugees – he qualifies for Canada’s private sponsorship program.

If you would like to sponsor him – or if you’re just interested in helping to bring him here – please contact his friend Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Karim directly on Facebook – or by email: karimjaghoori@gmail.com - or through WhatsApp: +62-831-8617-6954.

Reach out and discover how wonderful it is to privately sponsor a good person to start a new life – with your help – in Canada!

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