Refugees clamour for inclusion on the magic list

THEAUSTRALIANlogo

The magic list of refugees who might make the cut to come to Australia has taken on mythical proportions in the ghettos of Kuala Lumpur. To make the list means an end to a life of uncertainty and insecurity, an end to dodging police and the paramilitary corps. It means being able to work legally, and send the children to government schools.

Every one of Malaysia’s 90,000 or more asylum-seekers and refugees wants to be resettled, and the sooner the better. Many have been waiting for months or years for assessment by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, let alone a sniff of a new life elsewhere.

According to Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the list of those to be resettled under the Australia-Malaysia plan will be compiled by the UNHCR. Once the individuals on the list have passed Australian health, character and security checks, they will be resettled in Australia. Under the plan’s broad principles, Australia will accept 4000 refugees from Malaysia over four years, and the goal of every refugee is to get on the resettlement list.

Mohammed Ali Haidari, an ethnic Hazara man from Afghanistan, is desperate to make the cut. Living with his wife, Tahera, his two-year-old daughter, his parents and his siblings in a crowded flat in Kuala Lumpur, he said his family had traipsed through four countries in search of a home.

They have travelled through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Malaysia all with the aim of finally settling in Australia, where they have relatives and where they feel that the Hazara people are not oppressed and marginalised.

He is worried that the UNHCR has stopped considering Afghan families for resettlement, and he says that many Afghans have “gone crazy” waiting, and have made the journey to Indonesia to buy a passage to Australia on a boat.

Once a farmer, the 36-year-old now works illegally as an assistant chef in a restaurant, and worries about his family’s security. He has been arrested once, locked up in one of Malaysia’s much-criticised detention centres, and set upon by three thugs near his home.

Mr Haidari and his family have been assessed by UNHCR as refugees. “I want, I want, I want to get us on that list,” he said..

“We love Australia, we choose Australia, it’s a country to live in forever.”

To make the list means an end to a life of uncertainty and insecurity, an end to dodging police and the paramilitary corps. It means being able to work legally, and send the children to government schools.

Every one of Malaysia’s 90,000 or more asylum-seekers and refugees wants to be resettled, and the sooner the better. Many have been waiting for months or years for assessment by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, let alone a sniff of a new life elsewhere.

According to Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the list of those to be resettled under the Australia-Malaysia plan will be compiled by the UNHCR. Once the individuals on the list have passed Australian health, character and security checks, they will be resettled in Australia. Under the plan’s broad principles, Australia will accept 4000 refugees from Malaysia over four years, and the goal of every refugee is to get on the resettlement list.

Mohammed Ali Haidari, an ethnic Hazara man from Afghanistan, is desperate to make the cut. Living with his wife, Tahera, his two-year-old daughter, his parents and his siblings in a crowded flat in Kuala Lumpur, he said his family had traipsed through four countries in search of a home.

They have travelled through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Malaysia all with the aim of finally settling in Australia, where they have relatives and where they feel that the Hazara people are not oppressed and marginalised.

He is worried that the UNHCR has stopped considering Afghan families for resettlement, and he says that many Afghans have “gone crazy” waiting, and have made the journey to Indonesia to buy a passage to Australia on a boat.

Once a farmer, the 36-year-old now works illegally as an assistant chef in a restaurant, and worries about his family’s security. He has been arrested once, locked up in one of Malaysia’s much-criticised detention centres, and set upon by three thugs near his home.

Mr Haidari and his family have been assessed by UNHCR as refugees. “I want, I want, I want to get us on that list,” he said..

“We love Australia, we choose Australia, it’s a country to live in forever.”