Humans in Flight - Detention and Freedom

DETENTION, FREEDOM,
AND HUMANS IN FLIGHT

By Shams Erfan, John Jonaid &
Stephen Watt

My own country has become a foreign land.

My own people have become strangers to me.

And I have become

A wanderer of the universe.

- Poetic fragment, by John Jonaid

A few months ago, on a warm fall afternoon, we met for a coffee on the rooftop of Jon’s apartment, overlooking the CN Tower in downtown Toronto. The light of the day slowly disappeared, darkness fell over the city, and the night slowly approached.

It was a gathering typical of our new lives in Canada. There were four of us: Jon, Javed, Stephen and me.

Jon and I had known each other for years, having worked together closely as volunteers while we were in Indonesia. Jon is Rohingyan, and had to flee Burma and the ongoing genocide taking place there to save his life, moving from one country to the next until finally arriving by land in Indonesia.

He and I planned many of the protests there, asking the Immigration authorities, as well as the IOM and UNHCR for resettlement and fair treatment for refugees. We also co-founded an online publication called The Archipelago, to give refugees their own channel and voice for speaking out.

My own flight to Indonesia started in Afghanistan, where I was threatened by the Taliban for my efforts in education. Stephen Watt was born in Canada but has been active in bringing many refugees, including us, to this country. And Javed, our friend the photographer, is Hazara like me, but was raised in Pakistan, where he nearly lost his life to extremist violence.

Javed was lucky enough to build a following for his photography before he came to Canada, and his creative efforts helped find him the sponsorship opportunity that brought him to Toronto.

Both Jon and I, on the other hand, were threatened for our work as activists and journalists. In my case, that meant being anonymous online and everywhere else. In Indonesia, I was the invisible man - even to Jon, my fellow writer and activist. It was only in the Toronto airport, when I arrived, when Jon first saw the face of the person he had worked so closely with, for years. It was a few days after that when I felt emboldened to finally my picture and name on social media.

While we were safe now, the past followed us, casting a shadow on the comfort of our new lives. Maybe it was being together that brought back those memories, but abruptly, an unwelcome silence dominated, and the mood of those old, bleak days of detention revived in our minds. In some ways, we were still strangers to freedom.

"In some ways, we were still strangers to freedom."

At 6 pm in detention in Indonesia we had to be present in the detention building. Three times in a row, if any refugee came late, the Immigration guards would detain us in solitary confinement for an indefinite period.

Terrible days, but there was hope at the end of the tunnel. We were incarcerated for several years in Indonesian detention buildings before a group of Canadians came together, invested effort, time and their hearts into forming sponsorship teams to bring us into their lives, homes and country.

The heart-wrenching silence was confusing to Stephen. He is regularly a marketing manager at the university of Toronto. He has a good job, loving family, and a huge network of people from all walks of life that love him dearly. He was born and raised in this country, where all sorts of freedom and opportunities are available to him, but he has never taken his freedom for granted.

His self-awareness and broad knowledge about the refugee crisis around the globe battled him to ask himself this question: What can I do as an aware citizen of the world living in a free country, where I’m not obliged to run away from my home, cross several borders, and spend several years in prison camps just to walk freely after 6 pm on the street, without a police officer chasing me with an electric shock batoon.

This humane and thoughtful realization multiplied his voluntary efforts, but his commitment despite being bombarded with lots of work daily remained bold to continue on the journey of saving lives languishing in limbo for years. In 2019, he co-founded the Northern Lights Canada: Guiding Refugee homes, which he runs now.

Through Northern Lights Canada, Stephen gained deeper knowledge of the refugees’ living conditions worldwide. In particular, about the Indonesia refugees. As the entire world turned its back on refugees trapped in refugee camps in a state of complete uncertainty. He shifted his energy and time on educating hundreds of Canadians about the power of private sponsorship programs. I always ask myself this question: What keeps him going? Amongst hundred of reasons that keep fighting between them to win my vote.

There are still millions of logics behind his voluntary work, but the scene I saw a few weeks ago at the airport would be my final say: A refugee he helped hugged him, looked him in the eye, tears of happiness rolled down his face, and told him. Thank you for saving my life. He continued I wish I had met you ten years ago. Ten years of his life wasted after he became aware of his situation, he didn't let his suffering prolong. Stephen doesn’t like compliment, but he does the work of ten people in one day. Last week, he submitted five applications for refugees to come to Canada.

Stephen knew already that refugees are bound with movement restrictions in Indonesian detention buildings, but he experienced seeing us relive the trauma of six pm life in detention first-hand.

A flying maple leaf tree from the nearby half-dead tree gently landed on Jon’s shoulder. “Even the maple leaf welcomes you to Canada,” Stephen said. This broke the silence.

We asked him for advice on how we could best use our newly gained freedom to draw the attention of the world to the dire living conditions of refugees caught in the detention system. We wished that they could come to Canada and experience the freedom of this beautiful fall evening.n.

Stephen paused for a few seconds. He then remembered the conversation he had with Jon a few months ago when he took five newcomer refugees to see the falls. Jon’s life and hundreds of our fellow refugees’ lives were saved by individual Canadaians. His dream of keeping the spirit of volunteerism, humanity and compassion of the Canadians saving our lives was to create a project run by newcomer writers and photographers to tell the stories of sponsors as well as the newcomers they helped now making a positive contribution to Canadian society in different ways.

Humans in Flight is a picture and storytelling project led by newcomer writers, storytellers, and photographers in Canada.

"Even the maple leaf welcomes you to Canada."