Name: Mohammad Sajadi

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, Taekwondo master.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

After being deported from Iran to Afghanistan and facing threats from the Taliban, Sajadi fled to Indonesia to save his life.

He is a Taekwondo master and his dream is to participate in the Olympic game one day. Since he does not have access to his basic human rights, he cannot take part in national or international sports competitions, but he has been giving Taekwondo training at a local school voluntarily. This great guy needs a group of five Canadian friends who can bring him to Canada where he can pursue his dreams and live with freedom.

Early Life

During the Afghan civil war, Sajadi’s family migrated to Iran to save their lives. They had left their lands behind. Mohammad Sajadi was born in January 1999, in Iran where he grew up being mocked and humiliated as an Afghan refugee by local people.

In 2009, his grandfather decided to return to his hometown in Afghanistan and take back his lands, but he then disappeared and Sajadi’s family members did not know what had happened to him there. 

Deportation

One day in 2014, Sajadi, his uncle, and his aunt along with his uncle’s cousin named Sayyed Akbar were going from Tehran to Mashhad, because one of their relatives had got into an accident and needed their help. While they were on the way, the Iranian police arrested and deported them to Afghanistan. The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education.

After arriving in Afghanistan, they decided to go back to their hometown and take their lands back which Sajadi’s grandfather had left behind while escaping to Iran. Sajadi’s hometown was Gardez the capital of the Paktia province in Afghanistan. When Sajadi and his family returned to their hometown, they learned from a friend of Sajadi’s grandfather that his grandfather had been killed by the Taliban and they were waiting for Sajadi and his family too.

“It was the time we all were quivering with fear that we would also be killed.”

The Journey to Indonesia

Due to being at his grandfather’s friend’s home for a dinner, Sajadi, his uncle and his aunt survived, but some members of the Taliban abducted Sayyed Akbar from his home and all the documents and photographs of Sajadi and others got into the Taliban’s hands.  

Knowing that they would be captured and killed by the Taliban, they fled to Kabul. Since their documents and photographs were with the Taliban, they had no way but to flee the country immediately.

“While we were finding a way out of Afghanistan, we found out that my uncle’s cousin Sayyed Akbar had been mercilessly killed by the Taliban.”

After they arranged for a people smuggler with the help of a friend of Sajadi’s grandfather, they flew to New Delhi, India. From there, they went to Malaysia by plane and then on to Medan, Indonesia by boat on July 28, 2014.

Life in Indonesia

After arriving in Jakarta, Sajadi registered himself with the UNHCR on August 4, 2014. Due to not having the right to work or way to support himself in the new country, Sajadi went to Makassar Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. After about a month, he was transferred to a community house in Makassar in October 2014. Since then, he has been living there.

While living in the state of limbo, Sajadi has been improving his English skills. His childhood dream was participating in the Olympic game as a Taekwondo Athlete. In 2019, he decided to start his Taekwondo training again and try to find a way to pursue his childhood dream. Through the years, he participated in many tournaments and won a few medals too, but as a refugee, he was not allowed to participate in the national tournament.

“Finding out that I could never participate was very heartbreaking for me, so I decided not to struggle more and started giving training Taekwondo at a local school voluntarily.”

Depressed

Sajadi also made some short and long documentary films with his friends about his journey and experiences in Indonesia.

Despite being motivated and persistent, he feels stuck in this state of limbo where he cannot work, get proper education, drive and even open a bank account. Due to the pressure of the immigration authorities, Sajadi’s uncle left Makassar and moved to Jakarta. His aunt also got resettled in Canada. Since then, he has been feeling lonely there. He says:

“Due to the sudden changes, I went through a depression phase which I still am struggling with. On the other hand, I have not seen my mother since 2014.”

There is a Way!

The hope of getting reunited with his mother is the only reason for him not to give up. He dreams of one day making his mother’s life full of happiness and joy, so that she would never worry about anything.

There is a way! Since Sajadi 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 Sajadi 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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