Name: Ehsanullah Wakili

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, cook, Afghan bread baker.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Due to facing life threats from the Taliban, Ehsanullah fled to Indonesia by boat to save his life in 2014. It has been a decade since he has been living in a state of limbo.

Ehsanullah has many skills. He is a good cook and Afghan bread baker which will help him resettle in the third country fast. His hope now is to find a group of Canadian friends who can help him start a new life in Canada.

Early Life

Ehsanullah was born in January 1999, in the Jaghori district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan.

Ehsanullah’s childhood dream was to get proper education and help his people all over Afghanistan. Unfortunately, it did not happen because he was 13 years old when his father passed away. After 4 months, his mother also died and left Ehsanullah with his two brothers and a sister behind. To support his family, Ehsanullah started working as a shepherd.

“It was so challenging and painful for me to leave my dreams behind and work at the age of 13.”

Danger Strikes

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. While working as a shepherd, Ehsanullah became friends with a Pashtun shepherd whose name was Torkhan and he was a son of a Taliban member.

On August 3, 2014, Ehsanullah was feeding the sheep together with his friend Torkhan on the mountain which was near his town. Suddenly, Torkhan fell from a rock and died.

      “When I saw him bleeding, I got scared and ran back home.”

Ehsanullah went to the elder of the village named Khalifa Ali Yawar, and told him what had happened. Khalifa Ali Yawar advised him to go to the mosque to stay safe and wait until the result of the incident got cleared.

The next day, four armed members of the Taliban came to his village and searched the village to find and arrest him. Luckily, they could not find him and went back. Ehsanullah’s villagers knew that the Taliban would capture and kill him. A few days later, the villagers suggested him to leave the country along with his family members to save their lives.

The Journey

On August 7, 2014, Ehsanullah and his siblings fled to Pakistan. Due to not having legal status in the country, it was not possible for Ehsanullah to find work and support his family, so he decided to seek a safe country. 

After he arranged for a people smuggler, he flew to Thailand on August 14, 2014. He was then brought to Malaysia by land and then on to Indonesia by boat on August 18, 2014.  

Life in Indonesia

After arriving in Jakarta, he registered himself with the UNHCR on August 20, 2014. With no right to work or way to support himself in Indonesia, he went to Manado Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. On March 20, 2015, he was transferred to a detention centre there. The detention centre was overcrowded and badly ventilated. While living there, he spent his time learning cooking skills. On January 21, 2016, Ehsanullah was freed and transferred to a community house in Makassar. 

The Only Way

         “Living as a refugee in Makassar is very difficult.”

As a refugee, Ehsanullah cannot get proper education, work, travel or even open a bank account. It has been a decade since he has been living in a state of limbo and far from his siblings. There is no option for him to resettle in Indonesia nor he can return to Afghanistan. The only way for him to start his life again is to resettle in a safe country like Canada. He says:

“I have been improving my cooking skills, and I am an experienced Afghan bread baker too. My dream is to resettle in a country where I can use my skills and live a life with freedom.”

Since Ehsanullah 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 reach out to Ehsanullah directly on Facebook  – or by email: ehsanwakili255@gmail.com – or through WhatsApp: +62 899-6742-989.

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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