Yahoo Lifestyle What It's Really Like Being A Child Refugee In Australia
Sahro (Sara), 17, fled Somalia when she was 10. After her parents went missing, she took care of her sister while living in a refugee camp before coming to Australia when she was 13.
"I was nine when my mum and dad went to work and never came home. On the first night, I stood in front of my house looking down the road for my parents to return, until our neighbours called me inside. The next morning, I waited outside for six hours. On the third day, I knew in my heart that something bad had happened to them.
"Some people from our neighbourhood told me they had seen some dead bodies and that my dad might be one of them. Another lady told us our mum couldn't get back to us. After that, my little sister, who was eight, stopped talking for weeks. She just sat in the corner of the room staring. I was strong for her, but I would go around the corner and cry.
"After that, I carried around a picture of my dad, which reminded me of happier times; playing hide and seek and falling asleep on his lap.
"After my parents disappeared, we lived in a refugee camp in Kenya until my cousin sponsored us to come to Australia. Three years later, we arrived here and the next day they took us to see the Opera House, but I didn't care, I just wanted to find my mum.
"After a year, I got a call from the Red Cross telling me that they had found my mum in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. I called her on her neighbour's phone. When I hear her voice, I cried for an hour. She told me that bad things had happened and she couldn't get to us. I just kept saying, 'Mam! Mam! Mam!' I was crying and she was crying. I found my mum, but, somehow I lost the picture of my dad.* When I finish school, I will get a job and sponsor my mum to come to Australia."
Murtaza, 15, and his family are Hazara people and came to Australia by boat from Pakistan in 2011.
"It was very dark outside when we left. We didn't say goodbye to anyone and we didn't take anything with us. When we got in the car, the agent said, 'Shhh! Be quiet. I am taking you to a good country.'
"In Pakistan, I was always scared. I saw bomb blasts and dead bodies all the time. I found out recently my good friend, Mehdi, was killed by a bomb.
"After leaving Pakistan, we travelled to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. After that, the agent said, 'Let's go to the boat, it's a boat to Australia.' I had never seen the sea before, so when we got on the boat my dad put me on his shoulders as we walked into the water. It was night and I was very scared. On the boat, a man gave me half an apple and some bread, but I wasn't hungry. Everybody was sick. The boat was [heaving] and crashing and we saw a shark. Everybody was praying, 'God help me!' I was crying.
"After three days we reached Australia and they took us to Christmas Island. I saw the mountains and trees. \0x2028I was really happy and thought, 'Oh my God, I am in Australia. I am really lucky.' They gave us shoes and clothes and told us to have a shower. We stayed there for five months and now we live in Hobart and I go to school. My new life is good, although I miss my friend Mehdi."
Bashir, 17, an orphan, travelled from Afghanistan to Australia alone when he was 15. He came by boat and ended up in detention.
"I didn't want to leave my country, but I had no choice. My father was murdered by the Taliban and my mother got sick and died. At first, I went to live with my uncle, but we had no safety. I couldn't go to school or leave the house because I would have been killed by the Taliban. I slept a lot and cried. Then my uncle, he said to me, 'Bashir, if you cry ... nothing will change.' He tells me there is no hope in Afghanistan, and he sold my dad's grocery shop to pay for me to travel to Pakistan.
"On the day we left, we stopped at the Kabul markets. My uncle said, 'You will be cold, Bashir, I will buy you this jacket.' At the border, he put me in a taxi and told the driver to take me to Pakistan. From there I went to Indonesia. On the day we left on the fishing boat, a man told me to take nothing: 'We have everything you need, my friend.' There was nothing. No food. No water. I sat upright on a wooden bench with 70 people for seven days and nights. I am vomiting and crying. I thought this is the end of the line. By day, we are in hot sun. At night, it was freezing. I am glad for my jacket.
"Finally, we arrive in Christmas Island in 2011. I am so happy - and then they tell me I am in detention. This was shock to me: you have been through so much and they lock you up in a small, crammed room with six other children. It was the worst experience of my life. I got very anxious about my future. Even now, I have nightmares.
"Every day I'd asked, 'How long do I need to be in detention?' They could not tell me. Once I was on an excursion from the detention centre and we passed a school with children playing, and I am wishing I could be free like them.
"Life is better now, I am living in Sydney and studying for my HSC. If my mum and dad were here I know what they would say. They would tell me: 'We are very proud of you, Bashir, that you did this journey and came all the way by yourself - you are very brave!'"
