Name: Mukhtar Hussain

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, Excellent English skills, Educated, 5 years of experience working as Quality Control Specialist in USAID and USACE projects, volunteer interpreter, web designer, Co-founder of SMART (Skilled Migrant and Refugee Technicians)

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

While Mukhtar Hussain was doing his job as a Quality Control Specialist in many local and international companies for about 5 years, he survived many attacks, and unfortunately, someone reported about him to the Taliban, but they captured his elder brother mistakenly.

Mukhtar couldn’t do anything to help his brother, and he fled to Indonesia by boat in 2013.

Despite facing many problems in a life of limbo, he showed his true talents to the world. He and his friends created SMART and Refutera, two big websites which are very helpful for refugees.

This very talented guy needs five Canadian friends who can help him start his life again.

His Story

Mukhtar Hussain was born on June 15, 1988 in a village in the Behsood district of Maidan Wardak province in Afghanistan. As a child, he lived in Pakistan as a refugee. After the Taliban’s government fell, they returned to their country.

In September 2007, he started working as a laboratory technician with GHI Construction Company (Gulf Home Base International) in the province of Badghis for the Qalai Naw Airport Rehabilitation Project which was funded by USACE (US Army Corps of Engineers). Due to less salary, a dangerous workplace, and the way to go home and return to the worksite, he left his job in April 2008. Later, he joined the Louis Berger Group and Black & Veatch (LBG B&V JV) for projects of AIRP (Afghanistan Infrastructure and Rehabilitation Program), largest construction project funded by USAID in October 2008, for Gardez-Khost Road Project, and moved to Gardez Camp. ISS South African Company was providing them security. After a few days, they were attacked by the Taliban in Seti Kandow pass in Gardez.

“It was an extremely shocking moment seeing the Firing of guns from everywhere around me. Our security took all local and foreign engineers to bulletproof cars and gave an order to the drivers to move back to camp.

Consequently, a few security guards got injured and transferred to US Army PRT, a camp for treatment.

“The starting days at my job were so scary for me, but I decided to stay at the project which was a challenge for me.”

They faced a few more attacks on their camp during nights by gun and rocket fires. During the attacks, they all moved to a safe place in the camp which was called a banker.

While working, Mukhtar and his colleagues moved to different locations and faced a few more attacks by the Taliban. Also, the local engineers received threatening letters from the Taliban saying that they were helping foreigners which were prohibited by them, and if continued, they would be killed.

The Deadly Attacks

Mukhtar survived two deadly attacks when he was on the way for his work, the Taliban had set two mines beside the road and the mine hit a car which was 20 meters away from Mukhtar’s car. On that attack, a local driver was dead and a South African security guard and 2 locals got badly injured.

A few months later, the Taliban fixed a mobile bomb at the turning point of the road.

“I was in the car, suddenly, there was a blast and the doors of the car got opened, and I fell from the car in a small drainage of water.”

Luckily, the car was bulletproof and no one got badly injured. The security guard took him from the drainage into the car and they returned to their camp.

Despite being from the Hazara nation, who have long been targets of Persecution and Massacres due to their ethnicity and religious and political beliefs, Mukhtar visited many dangerous places and completed many construction projects in different provinces of Afghanistan.

Honest with His Job

In May 2012, he joined ITSI Gilbane for the project of CNP-A (Counter Narcotics Police HQ Afghanistan) which was funded by US Air Force Centre for Engineering and Environment (AFCEE) as a Quality Control Specialist in Kabul which was safer than other cities for him. As a quality control specialist, his job was to check the quality and quantity of materials which was being delivered to the site. He was honest in his job, and he rejected those trucks of aggregates, sand and many other materials that were out of project specification. The sub-contractor supervisor tried to give him money as a bribe, and he didn’t accept.

“My salary was enough and halal (lawful) which I was receiving by doing my job.”

The supervisor started threatening him and calling him an American servant. However, Mukhtar ignored their threats.

The Abduction

Every two weeks, like before, Mukhtar had to go to his home for two days of vacation to see his family. At that time, Mukhtar’s elder brother was also in Kabul, so they were returning to their home together. In the station, Mukhtar sat beside the driver, and his brother sat in the back seat. In Maidan Shar, the car stopped to refill fuel. Mukhtar’s brother felt vomiting and dizzy, so he changed his place with Mukhtar, and sat beside the driver to breathe fresh air from the car’s window. On their way, some members of the Taliban stopped their car, opened the car front door, and told his brother to get out of the car, and told the driver to go ahead.

“I was so terrified that my body was trembling. My tears were not stopping and I became completely hopeless.”

He shouted at the driver to stop the car, but an old man, who was beside him, suggested him to go home otherwise they would capture him too because someone reported them to capture him.

Also, he believed that the Taliban would release his brother once they searched him and couldn’t find any evidence involved with Government or Americans.

When he told his father what had happened, his father told him to leave Afghanistan immediately because Mukhtar was their real target and he would find a way to save his son in some way.

The Way to Indonesia

The next morning, Mukhtar moved to Bamyan and flew from there to Kabul. He gave his resignation letter to his office, got India’s visa, and flew to New Delhi, India in June 2013.

He managed for a people smuggler in India and then, flew to Malaysia where he stayed for two weeks. On July 6, 2013 he arrived in Indonesia by boat.

Attacked in Indonesia

In June 2014, Mukhtar got his refugee status from the UNHCR. Unfortunately, he has faced violence in Indonesia as well. Once he was beaten by the local people in Makassar until the police showed up and stopped locals. He was hospitalized and got some stitches on his face and head.

On the other hand, Immigration officers’ behavior was very bad with refugees in Makassar. They threatened, beat and tortured refugees. As Mukhtar says,

“they entered our room at midnight without knocking on the door, then started slapping and beating us without any reason, and they threatened us to deport us back to Afghanistan.”

His Activities in Limbo

In early 2018, he left Makassar and moved to Bogor where he has been a volunteer interpreter for refugees, and he and his friends have created SMART (Skilled Migrant and Refugee Technicians) https://smartforglobal.org/, a website that is very helpful for refugees. Also, he built Refutera https://refutera.com/ for Refugee artisans.

The Last Word

Refugees in Indonesia have been told by the UNHCR that they will most likely never be resettled. This is especially true for single men, as women and families are prioritized for UNHCR sponsored resettlement. Integration in Indonesia is also not an option. Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention so refugees’ rights are not protected, hence they cannot work or access formal education. They live in a state of permanent limbo: they cannot go back nor move forward

As a UNHCR refugee, Mukhtar Hussain is eligible for Canada’s private sponsorship program. He needs a group of five Canadian friends to support him.

To help support Mukhtar Hussain as a sponsor, please contact Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Mukhtar Hussain directly by email.

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

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