11-year-old Syrian boy reunites with parents in Saskatoon after 6 years apart
CBC
Eleven-year-old Adnan Kharsa wore a blue suit with a bow tie to the Saskatoon airport to see his parents for the first time in six years.
The Syrian boy stood nervously at the arrivals gate Wednesday afternoon, clutching a teddy bear and a bouquet of flowers for his five-year-old sister, whom he'd never met in person.
Adnan, who was separated from his parents by the Syrian civil war in 2017, has been living with his grandmother in Saskatoon since 2021, while the rest of his family was stuck in Turkey.
When Adnan's father, Manhal Kharsa, spotted his son in the airport, he began to run and sob openly. He held Adnan as if he'd never let him go again.
"It was exciting. It was hard to not cry, but I couldn't hold it," Adnan said.
His father was unabashedly overcome.
"I feel like I am born at this moment," Manhal said in Arabic, with English translations from his brother. "It was a dream, and unbelievable, to meet my son again."
In July 2017, as the Syrian war raged on, Adnan's parents sent him to Malaysia with his grandmother to escape the violence for a few months.
But then, his parents and grandfather were forced to flee Syria to Turkey with no passports and little money. They had no way to reunite with Adnan and his grandmother.
The couple gave birth to a little girl in Turkey, but Manhal said he cried for his son every night.
In 2021, Adnan's extended family in Saskatoon — led by his aunt, Doha Kharsa, and a volunteer group called Moms for Refugees — managed to privately sponsor the boy, his grandmother and his uncle.
Moms for Refugees organizer Kyla Avis said the group knew it had to raise more money — another $35,000 — to reunite Adnan with his parents and sister. The Mennonite Central Committee, which has a contract with Ottawa to sponsor and settle refugees, helped submit the application.
The family was warned they could wait two to three years due to a huge backlog of immigration and refugee cases, partly due to the pandemic, as well as logistical delays on the ground in Turkey and high demand from other countries, such as Ukraine.
In early September, Avis learned the family would be arriving in two weeks. Volunteers scrambled to find a rental property, furniture, clothing and other essentials. The private sponsors cover the family's expenses.
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This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
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