Jaivet Ealom is a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

-based author, former refugee, refugee advocate, and the only person known to have escaped from

Manus Island Detention Centre The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum (previously a Royal Aus ...

in Papua New Guinea.

Early life

Ealom was born in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

where he faced persecution, as a

Rohingya The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...

ethnic minority. In Myanmar, he studied industrial chemistry.

Life as a fugitive and refugee

Escape from Myanmar

In 2013 Ealom took a boat to

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, Indonesia. During the journey he nearly drowned, but was pulled from water by fishermen. From Jakarta, Ealom attempted to sail to Australia. During the journey, Prime Minister

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...

announced that Australia would not accept refugees arriving by boat. Ealom was intercepted by Australian authorities, and subsequently imprisoned. He spent six months on

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...

before being transferred to Manus Island Processing Centre, aged 21 years. Manus Island regional processing facility 2012

Detention and escape from Manus Island

In May 2017, after three and a half years of detention, a suicide attempt, a brief hunger strike, and serious injuries from an attack, Ealom orchestrated his escape. Using tricks he learned watching ''

Prison Break ''Prison Break'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial drama television show, television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purce ...

'', including tracking his guards’ schedules, and posing as an interpreter, he managed to exit the center. Assisted by supportive detention center staff, he purchased and boarded a flight to

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Journey to Canada

From Port Moresby he flew to the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

where he learned the local

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

( Pijin English), pretended he was local and obtained a Solomon Islands' passport. As Solomon Islands is a

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

country, it was possible for him to purchase visa-free travel from Solomon Islands to Canada. During that journey, he was intercepted and suspected of illegal border crossing in Fiji and Hong Kong but persuaded officials to let him continue his journey. Ealom arrived in

on 24 December 2018 with no money and slept in a homeless shelter.

Life in Canada

Ealom wrote a memoir about his journey, '' Escape from Manus'', in 2020. Ealom works at NeedsList in Toronto, studies

Political Economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, and volunteers with the Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ealom, Jaivet Living people Rohingya people Rohingya diaspora Political prisoners Stateless people 21st-century Burmese writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Year of birth missing (living people)