A SYRIAN refugee who spent several months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has arrived in Canada after being granted permanent residency by the country.

Hassan al-Kontar’s plight became widely known after he shared posts on social media that showed him surviving on donated airline meals, and washing and giving himself a haircut in the toilets at Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s Terminal 2.

He had been stuck since March — blocked from entering Malaysia because of visa issues and barred from traveling to other countries, and was detained last month by immigration officials.

“I know I look like someone who ran from the stone or middle ages. I’m sorry for that,” the smiling 36-year-old said in a Twitter video Monday, looking tired and stroking his bushy beard.

“For the last eight years, it was a hard, long journey. The last 10 months, it was very hard and cold.”

After al-Kontar’s arrest, Malaysian officials had said they were going to work with Syrian authorities to deport him back to his war-torn homeland.

But al-Kontar’s lawyer Andrew Brouwer said the Syrian was brought directly to the Kuala Lumpur airport Monday before he was put on a Vancouver-bound flight.

Brouwer said his client was recognized by Canada as a refugee and was granted permanent residency under the country’s refugee sponsorship program.

His is not the only case of an asylum-seeker being left in limbo at an airport for a long period of time.

In 2015, an Iraqi family spent more than two months in an empty smoking cubicle in a Moscow airport, relying on passengers to bring them food and water.

His case also recalls the 2004 film “The Terminal,” in which Tom Hanks plays a man who finds himself stuck in a New York airport after his government collapses, rendering his papers useless.  (SD-Agencies)