Refugee Pakistani MMA fighter Ezatullah Kakar battling for Manus survivors after years living amid death and despair
- The three-time Pakistan champion fled his homeland after being kidnapped by militants who disapproved of his fighting career
- He is now in the Philippines but his visa expires in mid-January and he is desperate to find a country that will adopt him
Ezatullah Kakar would sneak out of the refugee holding centre on Manus Island at night, board a boat for the one-hour journey to the main town of Lorengau, buy supplies for his fellow detainees and return to the camp.
The three-time Pakistan kick-boxing champion from the troubled Balochistan province would do this every other night, risking arrest by the Papua New Guinea navy which was trying to cut off essential supplies to force the 400 men remaining in the centre to move into new quarters.
For Kakar and his fellow detainees, a new camp – despite better conditions – was just another prison. They wanted a country to adopt them. Many of their friends had been accepted by the United States. Up to eight of them never made it out, having taken their own lives or were killed.
Kakar – a former world kick-boxing silver medallist – just wanted to fight. Not so much for a country but for his fellow detainees, many suffering from severe mental health problems, to show them what can be achieved if they remained strong.
“I am a fighter and I want to fight for my friends on Manus Island and Nauru,” Kakar said from Manila, Philippines, where he is training and fighting until mid-January before his visa expires. “I have to stay strong and think positive.