Syrian asylum seeker and café operator Nayran Tabiei has lived in uncertainty for 11 years.

Forced to flee Iran and Syria as refugees, she and her husband Majid Rezai along with daughter Alnour, arrived in Australia in 2012 as asylum seekers.

Nayran Tabiei

The family is among more than 19,000 long term asylum seekers who will receive permanent visas under a recent announcement by the federal government.

“We are overjoyed. It means we can finally move on with our lives and become full members of Australian society,” said Nayran, who runs a social enterprise café in St Kilda, said.

“There now seems a possibility that I can bring my sons to Australia,” she said.

“It means everything to us after living so long in limbo and not knowing what the future would be or whether we would ever be properly accepted in Australia.

“Our lives are here in Australia now. Our daughter has pretty much grown up here, so it is a relief to us that she will be able to continue her education and take advantage of all the opportunities Australia offers,” Nayran said.

Afghan asylum seeker Obaidullah Mehak said the announcement meant that he could begin his life again.

“Today I feel like I can start living again and that this is the end of the torture of uncertainty,” he said.

“Now all of the goals, potential and ambition that I have can be realised at last,” he said.

Mehak, a lawyer and human rights activist was forced to flee Afghanistan in 2014 after falling foul of powerful warlords.

“It’s like a huge darkness has lifted and I can move on with my life,” he said.

Obaidullah Mehak

The federal government has announcement that refugees on Temporary Protection Visas (TPV) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEV) will be given Permanent Protection visas. 

The move means almost 20,000 asylum seekers currently living in Australia will now be able to properly settle and be reunited with their families.

CEO of refugee settlement agency AMES Australia Cath Scarth said the announcement was a welcome and sensible move.

“The announcement will give certainty to people who have been living in limbo in Australia for many years,” Ms Scarth said.

“It will allow so many people to become full members of society and contribute fully in the life of the nation,” she said.

Nayran said the announcement was a validation of her decision to flee war and persecution in Syrian and Iran.

Refugees twice over, she and Majid were forced to flee Iran, where they ran successful business, when they became targets of the religious police.

After fleeing to Syria, the couple were again forced to flee their home, leaving behind their possessions, friends, and established lives when the Damascus café they operated was bombed by Sunni rebels.

“I lost my belongings, my life two times,” Majid said, speaking from his modest rented home in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

“It was terrible. We were living in an area of Damascus which the rebels were targeting. People were being killed and everything was destroyed,” said Majid, a qualified IT engineer.

Majid and Nayran sent their three sons to live with Majid’s mother in Tehran to avoid the conflict but kept their young daughter Alnour with them as they searched for a new place to settle down somewhere in the Middle East.

They tried Tajikistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, and even Bali but could not find anywhere safe that would accept them.

They applied for asylum in the US three times but were refused. The difficulty of their search for a new home was compounded because as an Iranian, every time he wanted to travel to another country Majid had to return to Iran.

“We could not return to Syria because of the fighting and if I go back to Iran I might end up in prison,” Majid said.

It was while the family was in Indonesia investigating the prospect of setting up a business there that they heard about the possibility of getting on a boat to Australia.

As refugees from Syria, they had registered themselves with the UN in Jakarta as asylum seekers but were told they faced a wait of three years before their claim could be processed.

Majid said it was a difficult decision to get on the boat but at the time they were faced with few alternatives.

After being approached by people smugglers, they embarked on a three-day journey with 63 other people on a small fishing boat.

“It was a terrible journey – all the time I was vomiting. I spent three days beside the exhaust pipe breathing in fumes. But we were lucky. I heard stories of other boats that took much longer and had 200 people aboard,” he said.

“And of course some even sank,” Majid said.

The family reached Christmas Island in 2012 where they spent four months in detention before being transferred to another centre at Port Augusta, in South Australia.

They were released into the community in Melbourne at Easter in 2013 and were granted work rights in June 2016.

Nayran now runs the Flavours of Syria café in a quiet laneway in suburban St Kilda.

With the help of Space2B, an art and design social enterprise that supports migrants and refugees, Nayran established the café to bring authentic food Syrian food to Melburnians.

Each morning she makes the hour-long drive from her home in Braybrook to the café, a small indoor-outdoor space

“I feel like I’m flying here in the mornings; like I’m going to my grandma’s house. And I have tried to recreate my grandma’s kitchen here,” Nayran said.

She and Majid have decorated the café in middle-eastern style, with blue Syrian tiles, rugs and soft furnishings. In the corner are wreaths of garlic and onions – a tradition in most Syrian kitchens.

“We want people to feel like they’re in Syria. It’s been a long-time dream of mine to share something of my culture with people – to see smiling faces eating and drinking,” Nayran said.

“They come and they feel like they’re in Syria and I feel like I’m back in Syria in my grandma’s house.

“I’m just doing what my grandma told me to do – to put my soul into everything I do and our customers feel that – even people who don’t know us,” Nayran said.

In keeping with her philosophy of giving back, Nayran is giving training and work experience opportunities to other refuges and asylum seekers. She also provides cooking classes and catering services.