After a year and thousands of kilometres, lost teenage refugee finds his family in Sweden
After being split up from his parents on the way to Sweden, a chance meeting has brought 14-year-old Mahdi Azizi home to his family.
My tears were falling and their tears were falling. It was a holy moment.- Azizi family friend Ann-Cathrin Haglund
A year ago, the teenager became separated while being transported with his parents by human smugglers across Turkey toward Europe.
Ann-Cathrin Haglund is a friend of the Azizi family. She tells As It Happens guest host Rachel Giese how it happened.
"In the middle of the night they had to go from one truck to another," she says. "It was really dark and suddenly they find out that their son wasn't in the same car."
For months, the family had no idea where to find their son — or if he even made it to Sweden alive.
"They hoped that he would find some other people to have company with," Haglund says. "They hoped they would find each other here."
Then one day the father Nader decided to take his daughter to an event at a nearby racetrack.
As fate would have it, his lost son Mahdi - who had been living at a shelter for refugee children - had also been invited to go to the event.
"Suddenly Mahdi turned around and their eyes met. He couldn't believe what he saw," Haglund says. "Mahdi said, 'Oh, Papa' and they started crying."
You can see pictures of the reunited family here.
"My tears were falling and their tears were falling. It was a holy moment," says Haglund.
But even though the family has been reunited, they could be split apart again.
That's because the family has not been granted refugee status in Sweden. But Mahdi has been given asylum because he arrived as an unaccompanied minor.
"We hope they are able to stay," says Haglund. "We will fight for them. We are really going to fight."
For more on their story, listen to our full interview.