When I first came to Australia, I never felt like I belonged. No matter how much I tried, there was always something missing. I didn’t know what it was. Then, a few months ago, I went back to Iraq. I was very excited. I thought I would be going to a place where I...
When I was 17, I was in a band and wanted to be a musician, but my father wanted me to be an engineer, so I went on to get a degree in Civil Engineering, and a Masters in Construction Management. As soon as I finished, I decided to leave Iraq. We Christians were never...
In the Broome detention centre, they said, ‘Outside this fence, there are snakes, crocodiles, and kangaroos and if they bite you, you’re going to be dead in two seconds!’ So we were too scared to try to escape. There were 1000 people living in that camp, but it was...
I am a Tamil refugee who was in a detention centre for six and a half years. In 2009, I left Sri Lanka on a small boat with thirty others. The journey took nearly one month – we were very seasick, and for the last two days, there was no food. I started off on...
In Pakistan, we lived in Hazara town, a town made up of almost 300,000 Hazaras who have had to leave Afghanistan due to their long history of being persecuted. My family arrived there when I was 5. Unfortunately, many people in Pakistan also don’t like Hazaras. We...
