Note: this ones an epic one, and i tried to trim it down as best i could. Well, people often think we have a poor opinion on refugees, mainly because we object to people that come to our great land by boat. Today, I met two refugees and we talked for over an hour. I dearly wanted to share their stories with you. However, For the sake of their privacy (although I am trying to arrange to do a proper recorded interview) I’m going to refer to them as P & R. Now P grew up in the Congo, born in 1990 he lived in fairly well off catholic family, He had friends, and he went to school. In 1992 his mother passed away. One morning in 1996 P was dropped at school by his father; little did he know this would be the last time he would speak to his father. At around 2PM a worker at the school came into his class and spoke to his teacher, P told me that to this day he still remembers the exact words the worker said. Roughly translated, it was “There are men with guns in coming down the street, we have about 2 minutes to get these children out of here or we will all be dead”. P spent the next 11 years living in a refugee camp in Rwanda. He begged borrowed and stole to find enough money to eat. He said the only reason he survived was by donations of food and water. He told me that in 2007 people from Australias Department of Immigration visited the camp and asked him if he would like to come to Australia. He believed that life could not be any worse and came as a refugee; he now works collecting money to help feed refugees in camps overseas. I asked P for his opinion of people coming by boat from Indonesia. He said “I am not meant to give you an opinion, but I will ask you this question and you will know the answer. If you had to leave right now, to run with 2 minutes to save your life, what would you leave with? Would you run to an ATM to get money to pay people smugglers? Would you always have nice clothes, and shoes to cover your feet? Would you even have a full belly? If you look at people on a boat and ask this question, you will know if they are really refugee or just illegally coming” When asked about his faith P told me he had converted from Catholic to Christian he said to me “When I was in the camp the church did not help me, The Catholic Church did not visit us. But God still kept me safe, He kept me alive. I owe my life to Him, not the institution that abandoned me.” Now R was several years older than P, R was from Gaza, He did not tell me his age but told me he was born a Muslim. He went to university in his younger years and when he graduated he worked in Israel in a power plant. He said at the start his life was good, he did not care about politics or religion. Until, one day he was going to work. He was stopped at the border and told that he could not go to Israel. Distraught he returned home. Soon after the gazian military came to his area, they told him he had to pay the government for his home. As he could not go to work he could not pay, and the government took his home from him. They also took most of his belongings, he moved into the local park with many other people in the same situation. This area would soon become a refugee camp. He lived there for many years. He began to hate Israel for what they had done to him and his friends. He even attempted to join the military and fight, but was rejected as he was too sickly and malnourished. One day people came to his camp and begun building a tunnel under his tent, he was told that Allah had shown mercy and they were building a tunnel to bring in supplies. However, when the tunnel was finished he was told that there was a bomb in the tunnel and if he tried to move his tent they would blow him up. He was still excited that finally that would have food and clean water, but, no sooner was the tunnel complete that fuel, bullets, and guns started moving through his tent. At this time R realised that the government had betrayed him on that day he lay down his faith in Allah and his faith in his government. A year later he was relocated to Egypt, during the relocation he suffered a nasty gash in his leg, and lived in the refugee camp in Egypt for some time. His leg became infected, the “medical staff” told him he would lose the leg, but he would be best to keep it as long as he can, as with only one leg he would stand less chance of survival and would often have his food stolen from him. He told me that about a year went by, and people from the UN came to give them food, one day someone asked him if he would like to go to Australia. He had heard many great things from others that visited the camp, who would take women in exchange for the promise of going to Australia. He agreed and was taken to Christmas Island. He told me that going to Christmas Island was the best experience of his life. He was fed every day, the wound in his leg was treated and, although he now has a massive scar, he kept the limb. He was educated and told that when he was let go, they would help him find work in Australia. [ It is worth noting that at this point in the conversation, R encouraged me to move some distance away from P, as he was going to share information with me that his current job did not allow] R went on to tell me that the only bad part on Christmas Island was other refugees that had come by boat. He said to me “my life was so much better, I had everything I needed. I thanked everyone every day for taking care of me. But others where selfish; they had everything they needed but still demanded more. One day they even set fire to the building because they wanted more. They were not grateful at all”. I asked R for his opinion on the people coming by boat from Indonesia and with a broken mans face he said to me: “I think that as soon as they leave, Australia should sink their boats, because they are murderers. They can afford nice clothes, they come here with shoes and spare clothes, and they can afford to pay the boats and the trips from where they come from. Because of them, people who really need the help starve and die in camps waiting for someone to help them. I believe that every man that comes to Christmas Island by boat probably killed 5 or 10 or even 20 people because they were selfish or didn’t care, I could tell by how ungrateful they were that they had not suffered, or feared death.” I then asked R about his faith and he said to me “There must be a god, only a loving god would soften the hearts of Australian government to help me, to save my life and my leg. But, it cannot be the god I was taught about as a child, it cannot be the god that made my government start the war and take my home. It is not the god that taught the other Muslims it was ok to sell their daughters to get out of the camp. And it is not the god of the selfish murderers I lived with on the island [Christmas Island]. It is a loving god like his god [directing to P]” As I said before I started this. This is the experience relayed to me by real refugees that suffered as a result of their governments and who were saved by the compassion of people like US. I am trying to arrange an interview with either or both of them to be provided but I am yet to be able to contact their employer. I hope this has helped people understand the difference between refugees and illegal boat people.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 02:09:38 +0000
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