by Lorna Sibanda.
“I can now face tomorrow,said an evidently happy Hassan, I now look forward to each day, I have a reason for living now, I have hopes and dreams for the future now, and it’s all because of these boats that the lot of you are ready to condemn.”
Hassan Abbas was born in the Waziristan district of Northern Pakistan.
He comes from a middle class family and he is the second child in a family of eight.
His father was doctor and his mother a teacher. Hassan describes his life back in his homeland as a very “happy one, full of joy and laughter”, before the war on terror began.
Seized by the Taliban
Hassan was in his first year of medical school in Pakistan, when he was captured by the Taliban forces.
His parents never knew what happened to him and they simply gave up looking for him when he disappeared.
Pakistan is a stronghold of the Taliban and that has affected the people of Pakistan greatly especially the civilians who had nothing to do with terror or terrorism.
“I didn’t even know what terrorism was until I found myself captured and accused of being a spy supporting the US, ” he recalls.
Hassan and his friends were captured in 2004, because they had mobile phones and were found recording a mass killing that had just happened in their neighbourhood.
After two years in prison fate smiled at him when a bomb was dropped near a prison where he was in and a lot of prisoners died and some escaped, and he was one of the lucky few who managed to escape.
Hassan found himself in Afghanistan, and he has no idea how he got there, but what he remembers clearly the first time he got there was that there was a story of man who was said to take people to Australia.
“I could not believe my luck. It was like I had stumbled in front of a goldmine and all I had to do was, get the gold and go.”
However when he finally met that man who took people to Australia he was told that, he had to pay $US5,000 for a full trip to Australia.
At that instant Hassan knew that his luck had run out because he could not afford all that money.
He tried to negotiate with the man, but the man just told him that the next trip to Australia was in a week’s time and if he could come up with that amount, then Australia was on the horizon.
Payback
Hassan knew he could not give up or throw away such an opportunity so he went to that man every day until, the man said, he could come with them, but he had to pay him back when he got to Australia.
And so that was how he became one of the boat people.
“It took me six months and 11 days to get to Australia,” said Hassan.
Hassan went to Malaysia buy plane with a fake passport that was provided by the man who operated the boat and when they got to Malaysia, the journey continued.
This time however the luxury of a plan or a fake passport was not there. He was to travel to Indonesia by boat.
Hassan says he remembers himself fuming and saying there was no way he was going to travel on a boat, because he had paid $5,000.
He was however reminded that he still had not paid the money and he was the only one who had not paid, so he had no rights, and the rest who complained were told that if they chose not to get in the boat then there was no refund.
They realised they had no choice and they silently got into the boats ready to meet their maker along the way.
Love at first sight
The journey from Malaysia to Indonesia was the best journey that Hassan ever took, because before he even got to the ‘Promised Land’ he met the love of his life.
Hassan saw Sahara and he claims it was love at first sight. Sahara was from Sri Lanka and was running away from the problems in her country.
“We both knew we were attracted to each other but language was a barrier, and we later got together when we got to Australia and could speak little English," he says.
Getting to Australia was a different matter because the boat was captured before it reached the Australian mainland.
Hassan was one of the lucky one because although he was given a temporary visa it only took about eight months to process.
He finally settled in Perth and met Sahara purely by accident seven months later at a supermarket in Belmont forum shopping centre, and they got married two years later.
Hassan is now 29 years old and has a three year old son with his wife Sahara.
Hassan managed to get in contact with his parents and siblings who are now refugees in Canada, and they are hoping to visit him and his new wife soon.
Never wanted to leave
Hassan says he would never have willingly left his country if he was not in trouble and he really wishes things were different.
He also says most people do not understand the hardships that the so called “boat people “ run away from in their countries of origin and he does not blame anyone who criticises the boat people, because they do not know what it’s like to live in a war torn country.
He hopes that the Australian government will soon find a better way of dealing with people like him, because he does not see the boats stopping soon, if the trouble in the Middle East continues.
Though the trip to Australia was a hard one it finally seemed worthwhile because he now had hope for the future, a future for him and his family.
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