Man at the Airport: How Social Media Saved My Life—One Syrian's Story

His only weapon was a cellphone. When civil war broke out in his home country in 2011, Hassan Al Kontar was a young Syrian living and working in the UAE. He refused to return to Syria for compulsory military service and lived illegally before being deported to Malaysia in November 2017. Four months later, unable to obtain a visa for any other country, he became trapped in the arrivals zone at Kuala Lumpur Airport. Exiled by war and trapped by geopolitics, Al Kontar used social media and humour to tell his story to the world, becoming an international celebrity and ultimately finding refuge in Canada. Man@the_airport explores what it means to be a Syrian, an "illegal" and a refugee. More broadly, it examines the power of social media to amplify individual voices and facilitate political dissent.