This year's World Refugee Day (June 20) will always be special for Muhammad Nurul Al-Khalil. Last night, the 29-year-old Acehnese refugee boarded a plane to the United States where he will be resettled.

However, it has not been an easy ride.

For the past three months, he was held in immigration detention centres here for illegal entry despite possessing an identification paper issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).