WEBVTT

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I am a Hazara,

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and the homeland
of my people is Afghanistan.

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Like hundreds of thousands
of other Hazara kids,

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I was born in exile.

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The ongoing persecution
and operation against the Hazaras

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forced my parents to leave Afghanistan.

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This persecution has had a long history
going back to the late 1800s,

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and the rule of King Abdur Rahman.

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He killed 63 percent of 
the Hazara population.

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He built minarets with their heads.

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Many Hazaras were sold into slavery,

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and many others fled the country
for neighboring Iran and Pakistan.

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My parents also fled to Pakistan,

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and settled in Quetta, where I was born.

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After the September 11
attack on the Twin Towers,

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I got a chance to go to Afghanistan

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for the first time,
with foreign journalists.

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I was only 18, and I got a job
working as an interpreter.

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After four years,

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I felt it was safe enough
to move to Afghanistan permanently,

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and I was working there
as a documentary photographer,

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and I worked on many stories.

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One of the most important
stories that I did

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was the dancing boys of Afghanistan.

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It is a tragic story about
an appalling tradition.

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It involves young kids
dancing for warlords

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and powerful men in the society.

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These boys are often abducted
or bought from their poor parents,

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and they are put to work as sex slaves.

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This is Shukur.

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He was kidnapped from Kabul by a warlord.

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He was taken to another province,

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where he was forced to work as a sex slave
for the warlord and his friends.

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When this story was published
in the Washington Post,

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I started receiving death threats,

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and I was forced to leave Afghanistan,

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as my parents were.

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Along with my family,
I returned back to Quetta.

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The situation in Quetta had changed
dramatically since I left in 2005.

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Once a peaceful haven for the Hazaras,

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it had now turned into the most
dangerous city in Pakistan.

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Hazaras are confined into two small areas,

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and they are marginalized socially,
educationally, and financially.

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This is Nadir.

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I had known him since my childhood.

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He was injured when his van
was ambushed by terrorists in Quetta.

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He later died of his injuries.

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Around 1,600 Hazara members

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had been killed in various attacks,

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and around 3,000 of them were injured,

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and many of them permanently disabled.

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The attacks on the Hazara community
would only get worse,

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so it was not surprising
that many wanted to flee.

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After Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan,

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Australia is home to the fourth largest
population of Hazaras in the world.

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When it came time to leave Pakistan,

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Australia seemed the obvious choice.

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Financially, only one of us could leave,

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and it was decided that I would go,

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in the hope that if I arrived
at my destination safely,

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I could work to get the rest
of my family to join me later.

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We all knew about the risks,

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and how terrifying the journey is,

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and I met many people
who lost loved ones at sea.

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It was a desperate decision to take,
to leave everything behind,

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and no one makes this decision easily.

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If I had been able
to simply fly to Australia,

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it would have taken me
less than 24 hours.

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But getting a visa was impossible.

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My journey was much longer,

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much more complicated,

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and certainly more dangerous,

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traveling to Thailand by air,

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and then by road and boat
to Malaysia and into Indonesia,

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paying people and smugglers all the way

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and spending a lot of time hiding

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and a lot of time in fear of being caught.

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In Indonesia, I joined a group
of seven asylum seekers.

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We all shared a bedroom

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in a town outside of Jakarta called Bogor.

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After spending a week in Bogor,

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three of my roommates
left for the perilous journey,

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and we got the news two days later

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that a distressed boat sank
in the sea en route to Christmas Island.

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We found out that our three roommates --
Nawroz, Jaffar and Shabbir --

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were also among those.

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Only Jaffar was rescued.

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Shabbir and Nawroz were never seen again.

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It made me think,

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am I doing the right thing?

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I concluded I really had
no other choice but to go on.

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A few weeks later, we got the call
from the people smuggler

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to alert us that the boat is ready for us
to commence our sea journey.

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Taken in the night towards the main vessel

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on a motorboat,

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we boarded an old fishing boat
that was already overloaded.

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There were 93 of us,

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and we were all below deck.

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No one was allowed up on the top.

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We all paid 6,000 dollars each

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for this part of the trip.

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The first night and day went smoothly,

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but by the second night, 
the weather turned.

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Waves tossed the boat around,
and the timbers groaned.

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People below deck were crying,
praying, recalling their loved ones.

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They were screaming.

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It was a terrible moment.

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It was like a scene from doomsday,

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or maybe like one of those scenes
from those Hollywood movies

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that shows that everything
is breaking apart

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and the world is just ending.

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It was happening to us for real.

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We didn't have any hope.

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Our boat was floating
like a matchbox on the water

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without any control.

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The waves were much higher than our boat,

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and the water poured in faster
than the motor pumps could take it out.

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We all lost hope.

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We thought, this is the end.

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We were watching our deaths,

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and I was documenting it.

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The captain told us

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that we are not going to make it,

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we have to turn back the boat.

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We went on the deck

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and turned our torches on and off

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to attract the attention
of any passing boat.

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We kept trying to attract their attention
by waving our life jackets and whistling.

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Eventually, we made it to a small island.

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Our boat crashing onto the rocks,

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I slipped into the water

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and destroyed my camera,
whatever I had documented.

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But luckily, the memory card survived.

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It was a thick forest.

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We all split up into many groups
as we argued over what to do next.

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We were all scared and confused.

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Then, after spending
the night on the beach,

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we found a jetty and coconuts.

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We hailed a boat from a nearby resort,

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and then were quickly handed over
to Indonesian water police.

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At Serang Detention Center,

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an immigration officer came
and furtively strip-searched us.

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He took our mobile, my $300 cash,

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our shoes that we should not
be able to escape,

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but we kept watching the guards,
checking their movements,

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and around 4 a.m.
when they sat around a fire,

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we removed two glass layers
from an outside facing window

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and slipped through.

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We climbed a tree next to an outer wall
that was topped with the shards of glass.

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We put the pillow on that

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and wrapped our forearms with bedsheets

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and climbed the wall,

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and we ran away with bare feet.

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I was free,

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with an uncertain future,

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no money.

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The only thing I had was the memory card
with the pictures and footage.

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When my documentary was aired
on SBS Dateline,

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many of my friends came to know
about my situation,

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and they tried to help me.

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They did not allow me to take
any other boat to risk my life.

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I also decided to stay in Indonesia
and process my case through UNHCR,

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but I was really afraid
that I would end up in Indonesia

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for many years doing nothing
and unable to work,

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like every other asylum seeker.

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But it had happened to be
a little bit different with me.

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I was lucky.

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My contacts worked to expedite
my case through UNHCR,

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and I got resettled
in Australia in May 2013.

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Not every asylum seeker is lucky like me.

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It is really difficult to live a life
with an uncertain fate, in limbo.

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The issue of asylum seekers in Australia

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has been so extremely politicized

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that it has lost its human face.

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The asylum seekers have been demonized
and then presented to the people.

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I hope my story and the story
of other Hazaras

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could shed some light to show the people

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how these people are suffering
in their countries of origin,

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and how they suffer,

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why they risk their lives to seek asylum.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)