After living in an airport for 8 months, Syrian refugee granted asylum in Canada

After spending more than eight months living in an airport, Hassan Al Kontar has been granted asylum in Canada and is headed to his new home in Vancouver.

Kontar was stuck in the arrivals section of the Kuala Lumpur airport, after being told in February he couldn't get on a flight to Ecuador. A Syrian refugee, Kontar had overstayed his Malaysian visa and was not allowed to leave the airport. He was stranded in an area that doesn't have any stores or restaurants, The Guardian reports, and he had to sleep under stairways, bathe in the public restrooms, and depend on food donations from airport employees.

Kontar recorded video diaries about his situation and posted them online, where they caught the eye of Canadian Laurie Cooper. In Canada, residents can privately sponsor refugees, and since 2015, Canadians have paid the resettlement fees for 14,000 Syrian refugees. Cooper and her friends raised more than $13,600 for Kontar, but as things finally started coming together, Kontar was arrested at the airport for being in a "forbidden area," and Malaysian authorities hinted he would be sent back to Syria. He wasn't allowed to talk to anyone, but Cooper told The Guardian that Canadian officials stepped in and worked to get him out of the country.

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Kontar texted Cooper on Sunday to let her know he was on his way, and her guest room is all set. "It all seemed impossible," she said. "I'm a mom who lives in a little log cabin and he was living in an airport."