Stranded Syrian refugee seeks asylum in Red Planet

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Stranded in the budget terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for over 100 days after being refused asylum by several countries, Syrian refugee Hassan al Kontar has now applied to US space agency NASA for immigration into Mars.

Kontar, earlier this month, posted a screenshot of his application to NASA in which the 36-year-old expressed his willingness to “volunteer” for the space agency’s “next expedition to Mars.”

“It’s very clear by now that there is no place for me on this earth (sic) as no country is allowing me in,” wrote Kontar while offering a list of “perfect reasons” to prove his suitability for a future mission to the Red Planet. Kontar has been stranded in the terminal since March 7.

A screenshot of a tweet from Syrian refugee Hassan al Kontar that accompanied his "job application" to NASA.

A screenshot of Syrian refugee Hassan al Kontar's "job application" to NASA. /Photo via Twitter @Kontar81

“I have a lot of space movies experience so I know my way around a spaceship including space combat from Star War movies so it will not take long time for you to train me,” he wrote. “If anything gone wrong please send no rescue mission as I had enough from this big unwelcoming world,” he added in jest but still drawing attention to his plight.

Alongside his “job application” to NASA, Kontar tweeted: “TIME TO LEAVE. Human right, international law, organizations, governments, media, they all could not or don’t want to help. Maybe it’s time to try science.”

'Tired from this terminal'

A screenshot of a tweet from Syrian refugee Hassan al Kontar summarising his anguish.

Syrian refugee Hassan al Kontar overstayed a three-month tourist visa in Malaysia and is now blacklisted, which prevents him from re-entering Kuala Lumpur. /Photo via Twitter @Kontar81

Kontar has been confined to the airport since March 7. He had planned to travel from Malaysia to Ecuador in the hope that he would be allowed into the South American country without a visa. However he was not allowed to board the flight despite having a ticket.

He also reportedly flew to Cambodia but was denied entry before being sent back to Kuala Lumpur airport.

Kontar arrived in Malaysia in January 2017 after being deported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he had been working in the insurance sector since 2006 having left Syria to avoid the mandatory conscription service in the military.

After he lost his work visa in the UAE, the Syrian Embassy there refused to renew his passport, Kontar told the Business Insider magazine.

Kontar overstayed a three-month tourist visa in Malaysia and is now blacklisted, which prevents him from re-entering Kuala Lumpur. He also can’t return to his war-ravaged home country fearing retribution.

“I'm tired. Tired from this terminal, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of never having a soul to be with or a country I can call home, tired of people being ugly to each other. Tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world all the time. Can you understand this world?" Kontar tweeted these poignant words on June 11 expressing his anguish.

The tweet echoed the lines from the 1999 Hollywood movie “The Green Mile” in which a mentally-challenged black man John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, who’s on a death row on false charges shares his agony with prison officer Paul Edgecomb, played by Tom Hanks.

Syrian refugee Hassan al Kontar posts his daily struggles on Twitter to deal with his precarious situation. /Photo via Twitter @Kontar81

Kontar’s case is reminiscent of Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri who lived in the departure lounge of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for 18 years from August 1988 to July 2006. Nasseri’s predicament became the inspiration for the much-acclaimed 2004 Steven Spielberg movie “The Terminal”, which coincidentally had Tom Hanks playing the lead.

Kontar posts his daily struggles on Twitter to deal with his precarious situation. He also shares videos from his experiences in the terminal in the hopes of drawing attention to his plight. One could only hope that someone is watching, and even more, has a solution to Kontar's predicament.

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