Name: Mohammad Rezai

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, experienced tile installer, constructor and hairdresser.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

As a stateless person growing up in Iran, Rezai faced deportation to Afghanistan in 2014. Subsequently captured by the Taliban, he managed a daring escape, reaching Indonesia the same year.

Inside the detention center, Rezai volunteered his hairdressing skills to help fellow refugees. Despite expertise in tile installation, construction, and hairdressing, he remains in a state of limbo, unable to work or pursue education. Now, Rezai hopes to find support from five Canadian friends to help him embark on a new life in Canada."

His Early Life

Rezai was born on April 26, 1997, in the Jaghori district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. Like many other Hazaras, Rezai’s family fled to Esfahan, Iran in the year 2000, due to the threats of the Taliban. Due to not having legal documents to stay in Iran, his father was arrested and deported to Afghanistan many times. Eventually, in 2011, after being deported to Afghanistan again, his father decided to stay and work in Afghanistan because the illegal route to Iran was very dangerous.

Rezai’s father started working as a driver in Kabul for the local police department. His job was to deliver food. One day in 2011, Rezai’s father was going from Kabul to Jaghori when some members of the Taliban captured and killed him.

“Hearing about the murder of my father was an unbearable pain for me.”

Deportation

In the year 2013, Rezai started working as a tailor in Esfahan to support his family. Unfortunately, one day in May 2014, Rezai was coming back from work home when the local police arrested him for not having legal documents. He was then deported to Herat, Afghanistan.

In Search of Peace

Since Rezai grew up in Iran, he did not know anything about Afghanistan. He decided to return to his birth town Jaghori. From Herat, he went to Ghazni where he met an old Hazara man in a restaurant. While having a conversation, the man claimed that he knew Rezai’s father who had been killed by the Taliban. He suggested Rezai not to go to Jaghori. Rezai also told the old man that he had gotten tired of the inappropriate and abusive behavior of Irani authorities and that he would never go back there. 

The old man suggested Rezai go to Indonesia where he would be safe. Also, he said that he knew a people smuggler who could take Rezai to Indonesia. Then the old man introduced Rezai to a man who agreed to accompany Rezai to Kabul.

Imprisoned

While leaving Ghazni, the man, who was introduced to Rezai, bought some food and water, gave a bag to Rezai, and told him that he could not accompany Rezai to Kabul, and the man asked Rezai to take that bag to Kabul.

While on the way, some armed members of the Taliban intercepted the car Rezai was in. After searching and finding the bag, a member of the Taliban asked about the owner of that bag.

“I did not know what was happening, I kept saying that a man gave it to me and asked me to take it to Kabul, but members of the Taliban did not believe me.”

The members of the Taliban tied Rezai’s and another Hazara passenger’s hands, blindfolded them and took them both to an unknown place where they were locked in a room. There were two other Hazara prisoners inside that room already. At that midnight, members of the Taliban took one of them out of the room, and after a while, Rezai and the other prisoners heard gunfire. The two other prisoners said that they had to escape from there or they all would be killed too.   

The Escape

The next morning, at the time of praying, Rezai and the two other Hazara prisoners noticed that members of the Taliban were busy offering their prayers. They then untied each other’s hands, broke the window of that room and got out of there. After running for a while, they reached a highway, and from there, Rezai went to Kabul by car.

In Kabul, Rezai hid in a hotel. He knew that the Taliban had his information, and he could be found and killed by the Taliban if he stayed in Afghanistan. So, he arranged for a people smuggler to get out of the country.

The Way to Indonesia

After his travel documents were arranged by the people smuggler, he flew from Kabul to New Delhi, India on June 04, 2014. From there, he went to Malaysia by plane and then on to Pekanbaru, Indonesia by boat on July 17, 2014.

Detention Centre

With no right to work or way to support himself, he went to Tanjung Pinang Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. In August 2014, he was transferred to a detention centre in Tanjung Pinang where he was later registered with the UNHCR that same month.

While living in the detention centre, he kept himself busy learning English and volunteering as a hairdresser.

After spending more than 2 years inside the detention centre, Rezai was freed and transferred to a community house in Tanjung Pinang. Since then, he has been living there. Also, he has been attending English language classes and other skill courses conducted by the IOM (International Organization for Migration)

An Opportunity

Rezai has been very worried for his family who are living in Iran. Like Rezai, they have been deprived of their basic human rights too. He says:

“I hope to resettle somewhere safe where I can reunite with my family and live together peacefully.”

There is an opportunity! 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 Rezai directly on Facebook – or through +62 831-8453-4825.

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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