KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — Syrian Hassan Al-Kontar has finally left the arrival halls of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) in Sepang where he had been living for the past seven months.

The 37-year-old was able to fly to Canada, where he was finally granted asylum as he wished, yesterday.

His ticket there was sponsored by two organisations, the British Columbia Muslim Association and Canada Caring Society, the BBC reported.

"Tomorrow, I will be reaching my final destination: Vancouver, Canada,” said Al-Kontar in a video posted on his social media accounts during a layover in Taiwan yesterday.

"I could not do it without the help of my family — my Canadian friends and family and my lawyer. Thank you all. I love you all,” he said.

Al-Kontar, 37, has spent the last two months in a Malaysian detention centre and his Canadian sponsors sought to have his case expedited. 

Canada Caring Society Laurie Cooper told the BBC that they heard on Thursday that he was coming to Canada and said the news brought a sense of relief, but also disbelief at the same time.

"Until I give him a big hug at the airport it’s not really real. It’s been a long, long journey with lots of ups and downs,” she told the British news outlet.

The group said people from around the world helped raise the funds to bring Al-Kontar to Canada after an online petition launched by the Canadian Caring Society asking Canada’s immigration minister to allow him entry garnered over 62,000 signatures.

Al-Kontar, originally from Suweida, south of Damascus, had been working in insurance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when war broke out in Syria in 2011.

He couldn’t renew his passport because he had not completed military service at home, but he didn’t want to return, fearing he would be arrested or made to join the military. He stayed on illegally in the UAE, but was arrested in 2016.

In 2017 he managed to get a new passport, but was eventually deported to Malaysia. It is one of the few countries in the world which grants Syrians visa-free entry on arrival. He was given a three-month tourist visa.

When that expired he tried to go to Turkey but was not allowed to board the plane. He went to Cambodia but was sent back.

Al-Kontar made his home in KLIA since arriving on March 7. Throughout his stay, he frequently videoblogged his daily life on Twitter and Facebook, catching the attention of both human rights groups and international media.