Where this was said
The Gates Open: Shoaib Makes It Through
At 32:43 · chapter starts 31:10
When officials finally called his group forward, Shoaib leapt off the baggage trolley. The Bangkok Airways attendant printed his boarding pass, loaded his bags, and he walked toward the immigration checkpoint — the same one where he'd been turned away weeks earlier. This time, the officer scanned his passport and the gates opened. Shoaib turned around and waved at Shibani Mahtani and Mek Darah. He appeared to be through. But in the taxi back to her hotel, Mahtani received a video from Shoaib: he was in the waiting area, good to go — but among the stamps officials had placed in his passport was a deportation stamp, banning him from Cambodia for three years. The system had reached its verdict: Shoaib was a criminal, not a victim. Despite everything he had survived, the paperwork said otherwise.
When Shoaib cleared immigration, officials stamped his passport with a deportation mark banning him from Cambodia for three years. The system classified him as a criminal, not a victim — despite everything he had endured.
Despite being a trafficking victim, Shoaib received a deportation stamp banning him from Cambodia for three years when he finally left.
After a year in Cambodia and selling his motorbike and cow, Shoaib arrived back in Uganda with nothing — bankrupt and too ashamed to tell his family he was coming.
Shoaib landed in Kampala with no money, too ashamed to tell his family he was coming. He arrived at the airport to no one. He described himself as 'on zero' — and said he just has to keep going because he has to survive.
