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A Syrian man who has lived for seven months in the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport while he seeks refugee protection in Canada with the help of an activist in Whistler, B.C., has been arrested by Malaysian immigration police.

His popular social media accounts — on which he chronicled his life of boredom and uncertainty, his diet of airplane meals donated by Air Asia staff, and his efforts to bathe and groom himself in public washrooms and sleep on public benches — have gone ominously silent.

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Hassan al Kontar, 37, appears to be in imminent danger of deportation back to Syria, which has been devastated by a civil war marked by horrific maltreatment of dissidents and opponents of the ruling Assad regime. He faces imprisonment there for failing to complete mandatory military service.

His Toronto lawyer Andrew Brouwer, a leading immigration lawyer, is “actively seeking to maintain his security,” and as a result has decided any public comment would be unhelpful. Laurie Cooper, a public relations professional in Whistler who has been raising money for him and helping coordinate his application for asylum in Canada, also declined to comment.