Actually, I left Algeria almost 19 years ago and it was the first time I left Algeria. I went to Saudi Arabia to try to study or to work there because of the political situation in Algeria that time, which I was involved in, and the army and the police started looking for me. There was no plan for coming back, and suddenly, when I went to Saudi Arabia, I found it a lot different. If it was because it was the first trip for me, I don't know. You need a permit to work there. I had 15 days.
That's why I ended up in Pakistan working in a refugee camp that time. I worked four years there. I didn't have plans to go to Algeria, I wanted to stay to work, and those were the only things, to support myself and to be working.
When the situation went bad in Algeria, when the army took over the democracy in Algeria they started looking everywhere in Algeria. I was in Pakistan. They had suspicions in Algeria; the government wanted to bring back any Algerians overseas.
That's why I ended up here in Canada. I heard about Canada and how it can protect human rights and how it was doing peacekeeping at the time. It was the best democracy, and you could explain yourself. And that's what I did. I came here and explained myself, and I was here for seven years. I didn't have a problem anywhere in other countries; it only happen here five years ago, when I got arrested. I had never been arrested in any country. I never was charged. I never committed any crime anywhere.