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Refugee brothers’ epic journey to safety

24 August 20221 comment

Afghan refugee Zabiullah Waseq has overcome a significant physical disability, conflict in his homeland, forced displacement and a global pandemic to find peace, safety and the chance of a bright future.

He and two brothers Allah and Mohammad, who all suffer from a genetic disability, were forced to flee their home in Afghanistan in 2015 because of civil strife.

They spent seven difficult years in India, including two years of a deadly COVID pandemic, with little money, no health support and an uncertain future.     

Now, after arriving in Adelaide as refugees, they are rebuilding their lives and looking for ways to contribute to the country that has offered them refuge.

“We had to flee Afghanistan as refugees in 2015. The conflict there made it dangerous for us and we went to India because of the bad security situation,” Zabi said.

“My two brothers and I spent seven years in India as refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR.

“When I got to India I wanted to study but not many universities accept refugees. It’s not a legal thing, but there is a mindset among refugees that if you can’t work professionally, what is the point?

“Those who are rich can study at private universities but most refugees cannot find a place.

“But I was determined. I applied to several universities and eventually got a scholarship and I started my studies.

“When we were in India, most of the refugee youth had given up on the dream of perusing their higher education because of their refugee status.

“On the other hand, I persisted in contacting institutions until I was admitted and received a scholarship to complete my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science,” the 29-years-old said.

Zabi completed his degrees at universities in Allahabad and Delhi.

But for both courses, getting to classes required expensive and lengthy daily journeys.

“It was really difficult. For a start we were struggling financially and I was spending $20 a day on travel,” Zabi said.

“At one point I was travelling three hours each way to get to classes. Even though I left home at 6.30am I was often late and my teachers would not let in the class,” he said.

It was at this point that Zabi’s disability began to worsen.

Zabiullah Waseq

Zabi and his brothers all suffer from a genetic neuro-muscular disease that means they begin to lose the ability to walk once then reach their teenage years.

“I kept telling myself that it would not happen to me but over time I lost the ability to walk,” Zabi said.

“My legs started giving out on me without warning, and I started to fall more frequently. I would fall to the ground and be unable to get back up. I would require help from someone to lift me because I simply wasn’t capable of getting up on my own.

“I knew that my problem was progressing and it was inevitable I choose to live my best, full of dignity and courage, and I never used my physical limitations as a justification for suffering or doing nothing.

“It was difficult to accept losing the ability to walk but doling so changed my life. It has made it possible for me to move on and make the most of what I have in my life,” Zabi said.

His determination to move on with his life even saw him volunteer with an NGO working in a poor district of Delhi.

“I was volunteering to teach children. I got as much out of this work as I put in because I was working with amazing and supportive people who taught me a lot,” he said.

Zabi and his brothers received humanitarian visas to come to Australia in 2020.

“The news that we would be moving to Australia in 2020 was one of the happiest moments of my life. I finally had a place I could call home. I began learning about Australian history, political system, and culture in order to make the transition to living here easier,” he said.

But then the COVID-19 pandemic intervened and Zabi and his brothers were locked behind India’s closed borders.

And when they opened, Australia shut its borders to the world, forcing the bothers to endure India’s deadly pandemic which saw more than half a million people die.

  
“The pandemic in India was terrible. There were no hospital beds and no medicine. We spent the whole time there and we all got COVID.

“It was a nightmare and my brother got very sick. I would wake up in the night to check on him,” Zabi said.

The bothers finally arrived in Adelaide in April 2022 and, after being connected with the NDIS and health and physiotherapy specialists, are now rebuilding their lives.

“We have been supported by AMES and Refugee Health to sort out our lives. I now have an electric wheelchair and I will look for a job and continue my studies,” Zabi said.

“I am looking forward to starting classes and boot camps so that I can upskill to the standards required by the Australian job market and become a cyber-security analyst or software engineer as soon as possible.

“I really believe in leaving the world a little bit better than when I found it, so I cannot wait to utilise all the opportunities this country offers to grow personally and to be able to give back to this society,” Zabi said.

But the conflict in Afghanistan has meant that Zabi’s family have been spread across the globe.

He has a brother in Iran, another in Malaysia, and his mother and sister are in Germany.

“Afghanistan is shattered and my family has also been separated. But thankfully we are all safe and we hope we will see each other again,” Zabi said.