ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A man from Sulaimani province arrived in Kenya in the late nineties with the hope of reaching Europe through the African country in pursuit of a better life as the Kurdistan Region was just recovering from a bloody civil war. Little did he know that he would be stuck there. After years of intense search, his family was recently able to find his whereabouts.
Saifulla Hussein left his hometown of Saruchawa in Sulaimani province’s Ranya district in 1996, asking his family not to look for him if they did not hear from him, according to his brother.
“After that, there was no news from him and we searched for him everywhere. We asked the Red Cross, Red Crescent, other organizations, and people in Kenya but there was no news,” Harem Hussein told Rudaw earlier this week.
After getting stuck in Kenya for several years, he made it to the UK but was soon returned to the African country. He was jailed by the Kenyan authorities for unknown reasons. His brother claimed that he was imprisoned only because he was a Muslim.
He lost contact with his family after being jailed in 2003. After serving his 20-year sentence behind bars, he was released and started looking for a way to reconnect with his family. The reunion is believed to have been made possible with joint efforts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Sulaimani’s passport directorate.
“It was a challenge for us to know who his relatives are, and where his documents are. We worked on the case for about a month until we were finally able to find his family,” Salar Abdullah, head of the directorate, told Rudaw, adding that they struggled to find his family because of a lack of communication means to track him.
Hussein has been married to an African woman for a year and a half and is now a father. Rudaw has learned that he has decided to return to the Kurdistan Region when his legal issues are over.
His family said the Kurdish authorities have promised to facilitate his return, including by issuing him a temporary passport.
Abubakir Ismail contributed to this article.
