Name: Shoukat Ali Muradi

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, excellent English skills, educated, university student, experienced as a volunteer teacher, interpreter and coordinator, FULLY FUNDED.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

UPDATE: Ali has a group of 5 sponsors and all his funding in place and will resettle in Canada. Yeah!

Shoukat Ali and his friends were captured and badly tortured by the Taliban due to working in a presidential election. After they came to know that they would be killed by the Taliban, they escaped from there and Shoukat lost his one friend during escaping, and he fled to Indonesia by boat in 2014.

He spent his two years learning the English language inside a detention centre, and due to his hard works, he got admission to a private university.

He has been helping refugees in every way he can, and he hopes now to be helped by a group of Canadian friends who can bring him to Canada where he can pursue his education, support his family and become helpful to society.

His Story

Shoukat Ali Muradi was born on June 25, 1993 in a village in the Jaghori district of Ghazni province in Afghanistan. While migrating towards Iran, his father was disappeared and never came back. After his father, he had to take care of his family, and his mother decided to move from Ghazni to Helmand province which is in the southern part of Afghanistan.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education.

In 2014, Shoukat Ali joined the presidential election campaign.

“I believe everyone has the right to vote and choose their leader as a president.”

Shoukat Ali’s job was to watch out the voting process to be fair and transparent along with an international Election Observer called FEFa (Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan), and he was being paid a good amount for the short time.

Captured and Tortured

On the Election day, April 5, 2014, Shoukat was sent to a village of the Nad-e-Ali district which was about 11 km far from the provincial centre. While returning to the provincial centre, he and his friends were captured by the Taliban.

“The Taliban stopped our car and ordered us to get out, and they killed the driver in front of our eyes. That the most horrifying moment of our life. They tied up our hands, blindfolded us and put us in the car.”

They took Shoukat and his friends to an unknown place. After the Taliban found their ID cards which revealed they were election observers, they started beating them and calling them infidels till they fainted.

“After a while, I opened my eyes and saw that my friends had fallen and their heads were badly injured that their faces were covered with blood.”

The Taliban said in Pashto that they would pray first then they would kill them when they returned. Now, Shoukat and his friends knew that they would be killed, and suddenly, Shoukat saw a window on the corner of the wall. They decided to run through the window, and one of his friends suggested with them to run in different directions so that the Taliban wouldn’t be able to chase them easily. In the middle of the night, they escaped from there.

“After running for about 10 to 15 minutes, I heard gunfire and I kept running even faster.”

After running for 30 minutes, Shoukat Ali found a garden where he stayed until he saw a car and got into it.

His Journey to Indonesia

After he arrived in Kabul, he heard from his mom that his friend had been killed by the Taliban. She said that he was no longer safe in the country, so he had to flee to a safe place.

Shoukat Ali arranged for a people smuggler, and on April 19, he flew to New Delhi, India where he stayed for ten days. From there, he flew to Malaysia, then he arrived in Indonesia by boat on May 2, 2014.

His Life in Detention Centre

While being on his way to Jakarta for registering himself to the UNHCR office, he was arrested by the Indonesian police for not having legal documents. The police kept him at the immigration office for 26 days. Then, he was transferred to a detention centre in Pontianak city of Kalimantan Island.

“In the detention centre, I learned English and Indonesian language which was a great start for me.”

His Perseverance

On June 7, 2016 he received his freedom from the detention centre and was transferred to a community house in Jakarta. There, he was introduced to Lia Cikokol Institute and studied there until higher intermediate two, then IOM announced that they could no longer pay the fee for English because of budget limitations.

“I didn’t give up. I kept learning in different ways and found friends from the USA and Australia who helped me in my study. I became an IOM volunteer teacher for refugees and an interpreter and Coordinator with one of the Churches that had refugee ministry.”

In July 2019, one of the private universities of Indonesia (Pelita Harapan Universitas) announced to give admission to refugees, and Shoukat was one of the refugees who was accepted by the University. He entered the University on January 6, 2020. Now, he is in his second academic year.

His Ambition

Shoukat Ali has been studying Hospitality and Hotel Management. He wants to be in the hospitality industry.

“I believe working in this industry gives me more chance to interact with people from all over the world.”

The Opportunity

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

“If I get the chance to be sponsored to Canada, I would love to pursue my dreams there, and to help others, especially my family and forgotten refugees in Indonesia.”

To help support Shoukat Ali as a sponsor, please contact Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Shoukat Ali 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!