Name: Zeinollah Mohammadi

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, excellent English skills, experienced construction worker, volunteer barber.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Zeinollah fell in love with a Pashtun girl whose father was a member of the Taliban. They both escaped to Iran, but members of the Taliban captured Zeinollah’s father and killed him. Being a stateless person in Iran, Zeinollah was at risk of being deported, so he fled to Indonesia by boat in 2014.

Since then, he has been living in a state of limbo where he does not have access to his basic human rights. He has been volunteering as a barber for his refugee fellows. He is an experienced construction worker too, and he hopes now to find a group of Canadian friends who can help him start a new life in Canada.

Background

Before Zeinollah was born, his family had fled to Iran where they had been living without legal documents. Zeinollah was born in January 1997, in Iran. His father used to work as a hawker and Zeinollah used to help his father selling stuffs on the street.

Due to not having legal status to stay in the country, his father was arrested by the Iranian police and deported to Afghanistan in 2013. His family followed his father and returned to Afghanistan.

His Love Story

Zeinollah was only 16 years old when he started working as a construction worker along with his father to support his family. Due to the financial problem, he could never study at official school, but he studied from some local volunteers who tried to teach him reading.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. Zeinollah was 16 years old when he met a Pashtun girl named Ayesha. Her father was a member of the Taliban. Zeinollah and Ayesha knew that her father would never allow his daughter to marry a Hazara man, and if he came to know about their relationship, he would kill Zeinollah and Ayesha both. They both had no way but to escape somewhere else to live together. In July 2014, they fled to Iran illegally. Unfortunately, Ayesha’s father along other members of the Taliban captured Zeinollah’s father and tortured him to hand Zeinollah over to the Taliban. When his father refused, they killed him.

               “I can never forget the tragic murder of my father.”

His Journey to Indonesia

Since Zeinollah did not have legal documents in Iran, he was at risk of being deported at any time. He knew that he would be captured and killed by the Taliban if he returned to Afghanistan, so he decided to find a safe country. Due to financial problems, they both decided that Zeinollah would go first and then call Ayesha. After he arranged for a people smuggler, he was taken to Pakistan by land. He then flew to Thailand. From there, he was brought to Malaysia by land and then to Medan, Indonesia by boat in September 2014.

Detention Centre

After arriving in Jakarta, he registered himself with the UNHCR in September 2014 and started living in Bogor. Due to not having the right to work or way to support himself in the new country, he went to Makassar Immigration Centre to ask for assistance.

In February 2015, Zeinollah was transferred to a detention centre in Gowa Regency where he learned barbering from other refugees, and then started volunteering as a barber there.

“I was so glad that I could help my refugee fellows as a volunteer barber.”

In July 2018, he received his freedom and was transferred to a community house in Makassar. Since then, he has been living there. As a refugee, Zeinollah cannot get proper education, work, drive and travel to another city. Due to his uncertain future, his wife Ayesha left him and since that time, he does not know where she is.

The Only Way!

Zeinollah is an experienced construction worker. He loves to cook and do hairstyling. Unfortunately, he cannot have a future in Indonesia nor he can return to Afghanistan. The only way for him to work and live with freedom is to be resettled in a safe country like Canada.

It is possible! Since Zeinollah 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 Zeinollah 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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