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After crossing the United States he would have travelled across 10 other borders including those of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Colombia. According to his family he made it to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he was reportedly refused entry from the National Library, before turning north again and heading into Brazil. He was first picked up by police in November last year in the Brazilian state of Rondonia by officers who thought he was homeless.

Helenice Vidigal, a Brazilian-Canadian police officer in Rondonia, said: “I knew he didn’t belong to that road. Anton is a different type from us Brazilians, he stands out.” She began efforts with the Canadian embassy to track down his family but then Pilipa escaped from a hospital he had been admitted to and headed into the jungle.

Weeks later he was found again on a highway near Manaus, and the officer contacted his family through social media. Stefan Pilipa, who flew to Brazil to bring his brother back, said: “He looked really rough. His health was starting to deteriorate. We got him just in time.”

Anton Pilipa told BBC Brasil he had obtained food and clothing from rubbish dumps. He said: “I know that I am very lucky to be alive. I am very happy to be able to return to my family.”

In 2011, Pilipa was charged with assault and weapons offences in Canada but disappeared before he was due in court. When he arrived back this week in Toronto, where his family lives, he was arrested and released on bail.

His family said he had been an “anti-poverty activist” before his disappearance and had lived in “radical communities”.

Donors gave more than $12,000 to an Internet campaign to help pay for his brother’s trip to Brazil, and for rent on a flat in Toronto for him to live in.