Name: Altaf Hussein Rajabi

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia since 2014.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, experienced driver, seller, mason and electrician, FULLY FUNDED.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Needed: A group of five friends to support him.

After escaping from the Taliban’s prison, Altaf fled to Indonesia by boat in 2014 to save his life. In Indonesia, he was kept inside a detention centre where he kept himself busy learning the English language.

Since childhood, his dream has been to get proper education, and now, he needs a group of Canadian friends who can help him come to Canada where he can pursue his education and live his life with freedom.

Early Life

Altaf was born in 1998 in a village in the Jaghori district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan. As a child, he was busy studying at school. His dream was to become an educated person in the future.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. Later on, he started working alongside his uncle at their electronic store where they used to sell TVs and Satellite dishes.

Beaten and Tortured

On August 10, 2014, he was returning from Ghazni to Jaghori with a cargo truck loaded with TVs and Satellite dishes. When he reached Largah, a dangerous village where Pashtuns and the Taliban are populated, he was intercepted by the Taliban. They searched the truck and found all the electronic items.

“Finding TVs and satellite dishes, the Taliban got very angry. They believed that I had been spreading the western culture by selling those items and according to them, I had to be killed.”

Altaf was blindfolded and taken to an unknown place where he was kept in a house. The Taliban kept beating and torturing him for 2 days. One night during the night prayer, he found the opportunity to escape from there since members of the Taliban were busy offering their prayers. After, getting out of that house, he kept running from one mountain to another until he reached the highway. From there, he went to Kabul by car.

In Kabul, he contacted his mother and told her what had happened.

“I wanted to go back home but my mother and uncle told me not to return as the Taliban had already recognized me and I was in real danger.”

His Journey

Altaf then arranged for a people smuggler and on September 2, 2014 he flew to New Delhi, India where he stayed for 3 days. On September 5, he went to Malaysia by plane and then on to Pekanbaru, Indonesia by boat on September 7, 2014.

Life in the Detention Centre

Due to not having the right to work or way to support himself in Indonesia, Altaf went to Pekanbaru Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. On December 5, 2014, he was registered with the UNHCR, and on March 3, 2015, he was transferred to a detention centre in Pontianak that was overcrowded and badly ventilated. He and other refugees faced many challenges like, lack of food, water and proper medical care.

“Despite facing such difficulties, I decided to spend my time in English training courses and other skills.”

On March 6, 2018, he received his freedom from the detention center and was transferred to a community house in the city of Tanjung Pinang.

The Only Option!

Altaf has been deprived of his basic human rights since 2014. As a refugee, he cannot work, drive, get proper education and even open a bank account. His only option to live his life with freedom is to resettle in a country like Canada.

Since Altaf 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, another good thing about him is that he is FULLY FUNDED.

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 Altaf directly on Facebook.

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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