Jaivet Ealom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jaivet Ealom is a Toronto-based author,[1][2] former refugee, refugee advocate,[3] and the only person[4] known to have escaped from Manus Island Detention Centre in Papua New Guinea.[1][5][6]
Jaivet Ealom | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Education | University of Toronto |
| Occupations | Author, refugee advocate |
| Writing career | |
| Subjects | Refugee rights, Rohingya advocacy |
| Notable work | Escape from Manus (2021) |
Early life
Ealom was born in Myanmar where he faced persecution, as a Rohingya ethnic minority.[3]
In Myanmar, he studied industrial chemistry.[3]
Life as a fugitive and refugee
Escape from Myanmar
In 2013 Ealom took a boat to Jakarta, Indonesia.[3] During the journey he nearly drowned, but was pulled from the water by fishermen. From Jakarta, Ealom attempted to sail to Australia.[1] During the journey, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that Australia would not accept refugees arriving by boat.[3]
Ealom was intercepted by Australian authorities, and subsequently imprisoned. He spent six months on Christmas Island before being transferred to Manus Island Processing Centre, aged 21 years.[3]
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,[6] Ealom orchestrated his escape.
Using tricks he learned watching Prison Break, including tracking his guards’ schedules,[1] and posing as an interpreter,[3] he managed to exit the center. Assisted by supportive detention center staff, he purchased and boarded a flight to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.[1]
Journey to Canada
From Port Moresby he flew to the Solomon Islands where he learned the local Tok Pisin (Pijin English), pretended he was local and obtained a Solomon Islands' passport.[1] As Solomon Islands is a Commonwealth 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.[3]
Ealom arrived in Toronto on 24 December 2018[1] with no money and slept in a homeless shelter.[3]
Life in Canada
On February 22, 2020, Ealom's story was introduced to the general public through a story written by Matthew Knott for the Sydney Morning Herald.[7] On July 2, 2021, his memoir, titled Escape from Manus, was published by Penguin Australia.[2] It was followed by Escape from Manus Prison, an updated version of the book published in August 2022 by Penguin for a North American market.
In 2021, Ealom began working at NeedsList in Toronto,[1][6] and studied Political Economy at University of Toronto,[3][8][6] as well as volunteering with the Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative, now known as the Rohingya Centre of Canada.[9]
In November 2021, he joined the Refugee Advisory Network, the first refugee-led organization established to directly advise the federal government on refugee and immigration policy. In October 2022, he co-founded Northern Lights Canada, a volunteer-led not-for-profit that encourages private sponsorship and refugee resettlement. In June 2024, Ealom graduated from the University of Toronto with a double major in Economics and Political Science.[10] On November 7, 2024, he became a Canadian citizen.
He is currently a member of the Rohingya Consultative Council, which aims to feed into the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) — an advisory body to the National United Government of Myanmar.[11] In February 2026, he relocated to Bangkok, Thailand, in order to facilitate his work in refugee and Rohingya advocacy.