A Syrian man who had been living in the transit area of Kuala Lumpur airport since March has been arrested by Malaysian authorities. 
 
 Hassan Al Kontar, 36, became stranded in the airport when he was turned away from a Turkish Airlines flight in March, causing him to overstay his Malaysian visa. 
 
 Since then, a group of Canadians in Whistler B.C., has been trying to sponsor his application to come to Canada, and publicly lobbying Ahmed Hussen, Canada's minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship. 
 
 Al Kontar, who is from Dama, Syria, worked as an insurance marketing manager in the United Arab Emirates from 2006 to 2017. He was arrested on Monday, Malaysia's New Straits Times newspaper reported. 
 
 He eventually lost his work permit after the Syrian conflict broke out and was left scrambling to find a country that would issue him a visa so he would not have to return to Syria. 
 
 In an email to CBC News, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Charlie Yaxley said the agency is aware of Hassan's arrest and is in communication with Malaysian authorities. 
 
 "[We] have reiterated to them the need to respect relevant international laws, particularly on the principle of non-refoulement (forcibly returning a refugee/asylum-seeker to their country of origin)," he said. 
 
 Malaysia is not a signatory to the United Nations' 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. 
 
 Malaysian immigration chief Mustafar Ali told local media that Al Kontar's social media had "shamed" Malaysia, and that he was arrested for being in a restricted area without a boarding pass. 
 
 Taking care of my ☘Garden🍁 is one of my daily habits, music and coffee too 😋 ☕. both of us can use a little sunshine to our life 🌞😎<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/syrian_stuck_at_airport?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#syrian_stuck_at_airport</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mystory_hassan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mystory_hassan</a> <a href="https://t.co/noEfLgk2AB">pic.twitter.com/noEfLgk2AB</a> —@Kontar81 
 
 In April, Al Kontar told CBC News he couldn't return to Syria because he's wanted for military service and fears he'll be arrested upon landing. He's also Druze, a minority religious group in Syria that has been targeted by extremist groups. 
 
 Tweeting the terminal 
 
 Since he became stranded in the airport, Al Kontar documented his existence — sometimes humorously, sometimes despairingly — in a long airport hallway, marked by rows of chairs and two bathrooms. 
 
 He ate three airline meals a day, and would occasionally manage to give cleaning staff money to bring him a cup of coffee or food from McDonald's. 
 
 His Twitter feed, which amassed thousands of followers, documented him trying to perform tasks like giving himself a haircut, working out, knitting a scarf and tending to plants. In one of his last posts before his arrest, Al Kontar wrote about seeing the sun for the first time in awhile. 
 
 In 2014, the Canadian government intervened to bring 21-year-old Syrian refugee Majd Agha to Canada. 
 
 Like Al Kontar, Agha became trapped in Thailand's Phuket airport for months after being turned away from a flight. 
 
 Malaysian authorities and Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada did not immediately respond to CBC's request for comment. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rinas: "This is for transit for one hour but ours is 40 days" 
 
 For almost seven weeks a Syrian family has been camping-out in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. The Ahmads brought their four children to Russia seeking safety. But they were accused of using fake passports and refused asylum. Now the family are stuck in the transit zone. 
 
 It's not hard to spot them through the glass walls of the old smoking room next to departure gate 36. They sit surrounded by the few bags of belongings they brought with them. 
 
 "This is for transit for one hour, for two hours," the eldest son, Rinas tells me in English. "But ours is for 40 days. And what it will be, we don't know." 
 
 Perched on the one inflatable mattress that hasn't burst, his father tells their story. 
 
 'Heartless' 
 
 Hasan is a musician, from a Kurdish region of Syria. But the Ahmads were living in Northern Iraq until militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS) came too close for comfort. So they decided to leave for Russia. His daughter is just 3; the boys are 7, 8 and 12. 
 
 "We didn't expect to end up living in the airport, but we've been forced to," Hasan says, explaining that they had intended to stay with his sister-in-law, here in Russia. 
 
 Image caption The Ahmads brought their four children to Russia seeking safety, but they were refused asylum 
 
 "I don't know how people can be so heartless. I don't understand. People are fleeing from war, from violence," he says. 
 
 The family spent the first two weeks in Russia in detention, accused of attempting an illegal border crossing. Hasan insists that their passports are genuine. 
 
 But the stress has taken its toll. A week ago, his wife collapsed and was rushed to hospital. 
 
 "We left our homes, everything. We just wanted to live in peace like other people. But they refused us asylum. They said this is not Europe," Gulistan says, her voice still weak and her face clearly distraught. 
 
 Image caption The stress has taken its toll on Hasan's wife, Gulistan 
 
 There are two police officers posted at the door of her ward. 
 
 "I just feel so sorry for my children. They want to know what we've done so wrong for this to happen," she says, close to tears. And Gulistan has another worry now - the family has no idea who will pay her hospital bill. 
 
 'Smear on Russia' 
 
 Russia has been carrying out airstrikes against IS targets in Syria for almost a month. Every day politicians on state television preach of the menace of IS. 
 
 And yet just three Syrians have refugee status in Russia. Fewer than 1,600 have been granted temporary asylum, valid for a year. Human rights activists say many more have been refused. 
 
 Image caption Hasan's frustration is growing about the way his family is being treated 
 
 "If we have intervened in this war, then we know about the threat and we cannot then deny people asylum," argues Svetlana Gannushkina who runs a refugee aid centre Civic Assistance in Moscow. 
 
 Russia, she explains from long experience, has a general policy of refusing refugees. But even if the Ahmads' passports were fake, she argues that they cannot be charged with illegal border crossing if they were fleeing danger. 
 
 "The way the family has been treated is very strange and inhumane," Svetlana Gannushkina says. "It's shameful for our country. A smear on Russia." 
 
 Heating stopped 
 
 Back in Terminal E, there's not much for four young children to do all day, lodged between Duty Free and the coffee shops. They used to play football in the corridor until they lost their ball behind the currency exchange. 
 
 Every now and then a curious tourist presses their face to the glass of the room, and some take photographs. At one point, a young couple wander in with backpacks, mistaking the room for a rest area. 
 
 There are children's clothes draped all over the radiators. Hasan washes what he can each day in the airport toilets. But the heaters stopped working 10 days ago. 
 
 "Sometimes we are cold. At night time it is very cold," Rinas says. "Here is not good for us." 
 
 Image caption The children say the old smoke room gets cold at night since heaters have stopped working 
 
 And after so long in limbo, Hasan's frustration is growing. 
 
 "They have left us here for more than 40 days. It's not humane!" he says. "Russia can drop bombs in Syria no problem. It costs millions. We are one family. Can they not help us?" 
 
 A Russian girl comes in with a bag of toy cars to give to the children before she catches a flight. She says she read about the family in the newspaper. 
 
 Other well-wishers have sent warm clothes and food, and someone has even set-up a bank account for donations. And this week, after so long on the cold, terminal floor an anonymous sponsor has funded a few, welcome nights in the transit zone hotel. 
 
 But the harsh reality is that the family's asylum case could take months to resolve. Until then the Ahmads are trapped in Terminal E - safe from IS, but stuck in no-man's land. ||||| Jeff Lagerquist, CTVNews.ca 
 
 
 
 
 
 One of the Ghanaian men who became lost in the cold during an illegal Christmas Eve dash across the Canada-U.S. border south of Winnipeg could lose both hands to extreme frostbite before being deported to a country where his sexual orientation is grounds for imprisonment. 
 
 Seidu Mohammed, 24, says he feared for his life in his West African homeland because he is bisexual. 
 
 Facing deportation in the U.S., he and another asylum seeker from Ghana hired a taxi to drive them to the North Dakota border near Emerson, Man., on Dec. 24. The men aimlessly walked for 10 hours in freezing, snowy weather -- losing their hats and mitts along the way. A Good Samaritan truck driver spotted them beside the road and called 911. 
 
 “We were crying because we met a man who saved our lives,” Mohammed told CTV Winnipeg. 
 
 Both of his hands are wrapped in heavy gauze as he recovers in hospital. He says he’s unable to sleep because the pain is so severe. According to the Ghanaian Union of Manitoba, the men were told how cold Manitoba was, but they crossed into the province anyway. 
 
 “It was worth it because I don’t want to go back to my country,” he said. “I’ll lose my life. It’s better I come here for a better life.” 
 
 Male same-sex acts are illegal in Ghana. A first offence is punishable by up to three years in prison. 
 
 Winnipeg immigration and refugee lawyer Bashir Khan has represented about 125 migrants who have made the journey into Manitoba over the past four years. He says a chance at attaining refugee status in Canada is often irresistible to many refugees after spending months in American detention facilities. 
 
 “When they realize that there’s the ‘Great White North,’ (that) there is an underground railroad, (they say) ‘let’s go to Canada and see if we can get a fair hearing.’ Because they did not get a fair hearing under the U.S. justice system,” said Khan. 
 
 Canada Border Services Agency says the number of people illegally crossing the border near Emerson, Man., has been on the rise since 2013. The agency estimates 410 crossed between April 1 and Dec. 8 last year. 
 
 Mohammed says while the chance at a life in Canada seemed worth the risk, he wouldn’t try it again. 
 
 The man he was travelling with is also expected to lose his fingers to frostbite. Both have been granted an extended stay in Canada while their injuries heal. 
 
 It could be months before they find out if they will be allowed live in Canada permanently. But the odds are perilously stacked against them. 
 
 Canada has an agreement with the U.S. stating that anyone who wants to make a refugee claim must do so in the first safe country they arrive in. 
 
 With a report from CTV Winnipeg’s Beth Macdonell
– A Syrian man who found himself stuck in an airport for months after overstaying his Malaysian visa and subsequently refusing to return to his war-torn home country has been arrested. Per CBC, Hassan Al Kontar spent the last seven months living in the Kuala Lumpur airport and documenting on Twitter his life in flux as he attempted to find a country willing to issue him a visa as a refugee. On Monday, Malaysian authorities accused the 36-year-old of being in a "forbidden zone" without a boarding pass and arrested him, per the New Straits Times. At a press conference, Malaysia's Immigration Department director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali reportedly said that Al Kontar said he's unwilling to return to Syria because he fears he'll be forced to become a soldier after years spent working abroad as an insurance marketing manager. Mustafar said his agency doesn't know Al Kontar's "real reason" but cited his country's need for closure in the case. Mustafar also said Al Kontar had "shamed" Malaysia on social media. Throughout his ordeal, a human rights group out of British Columbia had been working to secure a Canadian visa for Al Kontar by putting public pressure on Canada's minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship. Malaysian officials did not say at the time of his arrest whether Al Kontar would be deported.