Name: Mohammad Hadi Sharifi

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, excellent English skills, volunteer English teacher.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

After his father was killed by the Taliban, Hadi was captured and tortured. Luckily, he found a chance and escaped to Indonesia to save his life in 2014.

Since then, he has been living without his basic human rights. Hadi is a helpful person. He has taught the English language to his refugee fellows, and now, he hopes to be given an opportunity to start his life in a peaceful country where he can work, support his family and contribute to society. He needs a group of five Canadian friends who can bring him to Canada.

Background

Hadi’s father was an activist. He used to work with Hizb-e-Khalqi and his job was to translate people’s documents into English. Due to his work, he became on the target list of the Taliban.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. Before the Taliban attacked their village, Hadi’s father had escaped to Pakistan to save his life. The local people then started threatening and harassing Hadi’s mother until she asked her brother for help, so her brother helped her reunite with her husband in Pakistan.

Early Life

Hadi was born in January 1993, in Quetta, Pakistan. He grew up there and used to work as a carpet weaver to support the family. The situation was getting worse day by day for the Hazara people in Pakistan since they were being targeted by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Being Hazaras, Hadi and his family were not safe there, so his father returned to Afghanistan to check if it was safe to move his family back to his village.

His father then spoke with his mother on the phone and said that everything was fine and it would be safe to bring the family back there. Hadi’s mother was very happy that her husband would be back soon to take the whole family to Afghanistan.

“The next day, I came back early from work to help my mother pack, but when I arrived home, I noticed she was in tears. She informed me that she had received news from Afghanistan that my father had been killed by the Taliban in Dasht-e-Qarabagh while traveling back to Pakistan.”

The Incident in Afghanistan

Since his father’s dead body was taken back to his village by a driver, Hadi had to go to Afghanistan and hold the funeral ceremony with the help of his aunt’s family. After arriving there in July 2014, and finishing his work, he made his way to Pakistan immediately because his mother had high blood pressure and had a heart attack.

When he reached the place called Dasht-e-Qarabagh where his father was killed, he saw that the road was blocked by the Taliban and they had been checking every car’s plate number. They then started interrogating Hadi and told him to accept that he was the son of a communist.

“They started hitting me with a stick continuously and I kept saying that I was not the person they were looking for.”

The car driver begged the Taliban to leave Hadi but they threatened to kill him too. Then they blindfolded Hadi, tied his hands and drove him for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. When they took the blindfold off his eyes, he saw that he was at an old house where members of the Taliban kept beating him until he fell unconscious.

The next morning, when Hadi woke up, he saw two men who untied his hands and told him to get ready to escape from there otherwise, the Taliban would kill all of them. They kept waiting until two members of the Taliban opened the door and the two men started fighting them. Finding the opportunity, Hadi got out of the house and started running away.

“While running, I heard gunshots too, but I kept running for about half an hour.”

It was early morning when he reached a highway. He was helped by a car driver who hid him in his car’s trunk and dropped him in Kabul.

The Way to Indonesia

He then contacted his mother and told her what had happened. His mother cried and told him not to return to Pakistan because it was not safe for him either. She told him to find a way to get out of Afghanistan immediately. Hadi asked the hotel’s owner to find a people smuggler for him. With the help of his friends and relatives, Hadi arranged for a people smuggler and on July 24, 2014, he flew from Kabul to New Delhi, India. From there, he was brought to Malaysia and then on to Indonesia by boat on July 28, 2014.

Detention Centre

After arriving in Jakarta, he registered himself with the UNHCR on August 03, 2014. With no right to work or way to support himself in the new country, he went to Tanjung Pinang Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. On February 16, 2015, he was transferred to a detention centre there. While living in the detention centre, he attended English and computer classes and then started teaching the English language to his refugee fellows. He also exercised regularly, played football and read many books.

His Life Now

After living in the detention centre for about 3 years, on January 30, 2018, he was finally freed and transferred to a community house in Tanjung Pinang.

“I was so glad that I was finally free, but soon I came to know that I still have to face new restrictions like I am not allowed to be outside of the community house from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning.”

On the other hand, Hadi as a refugee, cannot get proper education, work, drive and even open a bank account. Despite facing such restrictions, he is busy doing his positive activities to stay strong.

His Only Hope

Hadi hopes to find a group of friends who can help him start his new life in Canada where he can work, reunite with his family and contribute to society.

Since he 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 Mohammad Hadi directly on Facebook – or by email: mirh16880@gmail.com – or through WhatsApp: +62 831-8575-6531.

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

Thank you for your support. And help spread the word by sharing this post!