Stories from Asylum Seekers

Video 1: Hear asylum seekers speak in their own words about the conditions that force them to flee their home countries and seek asylum in Australia.

Video 2: Starting a new life in Australia has given asylum seekers a freedom they rarely dared even dream of. But the transition can also be very difficult, and fraught with frustrations and anxiety. Hear asylum seekers speak in their own words about the challenges and joys they have encountered in their new lives in Australia.

Video 3: Hear asylum seekers speak in their own words about the dreams they have for themselves and for Australia, the country they now call home.

Video 4: Australia currently has a freeze on all asylum applications from Afghanistan. Hear Jawad, from Afghanistan, speak in his own words about the dire conditions in Afghanistan that have forced him and many other Afghanis to seek asylum in Australia - and that still continue today...

Edited by Lucas Testro. Lucas is a freelance writer and filmmaker, based in Melbourne. Check out www.lucastestro.com

More Stories

  • Areva* was just 10 years old and unaccompanied when the ASRC began to assist with her case. She faced being deported, alone, back to Thailand and to a future of sexual exploitation. We lodged an urgent High Court application to stop her removal and after 4 years of fighting her legal case we won her a permanent visa to remain in Australia.

  • Yang* had been on a hunger strike for 28 days after almost four years in detention. His despair was so great that he had stopped eating and was days from starving himself to death. The ASRC successfully lobbied to get him an urgent legal hearing, freed him from detention and won him a Temporary Protection Visa with the hope of a permanent visa soon.

  • Frederick and Ruth Joseph, 83 and 81 years of age had spent ten years trapped in an immigration system that had refused them a visa and medical care when the ASRC got involved. After a year of fighting the Department of Immigration the ASRC succeeded in getting the Josephs a permanent visa and with it the security and medical care they had struggled so hard for.

  • Samira* was only 10 years but had already tried to kill herself three times after three years in detention. When the ASRC was first contacted Samira was so ill she had resorted to trying to poison herself by drinking shampoo. Her younger sister and family were also deeply traumatised. The ASRC worked to free the entire family from detention, won them eventually a permanent refugee visa and last month they became Australian citizens.

  • When the Shaheen family* turned to the ASRC they were homeless. Their two children had been refused by the local school. They were also expecting another child. The ASRC found the family housing, provided medical care to the mum, organized a hospital to have their baby in and forced the school to stop discriminating against the children and let them into the school.

* Names have been changed

Go the Refugee Council (UK) link below to hear stories of refugees
ttp://www.justfair.org.uk