Skip to main content

Australia's Shame: The forgotten children of Nauru

The following speaks for itself.....

"There are 755 refugees on Nauru and 128 of them are children.

Both the Nauruan and Australian governments say they want the refugees moved on from Nauru, but they have been unable to reach agreements on where else they could be sent.

While that stalemate continues, many of these children are struggling to hang on to hope.

Here are some of the children still trapped in limbo.

Shamim

Shamim is 17.

She's from Myanmar and came to Nauru with her mother and grandmother. When she heard that she was going to Nauru, she thought it was Norway.

"When they told us you are going to Nauru. I was like 'Oh we are going to Norway it's so good. Norway is so beautiful. Mum why are you crying? We are going to Norway'," she said.


"And they were like 'No we're not going to Norway, we're going to Nauru and we don't know what that place is like'."

She wants to be an obstetrician.

"She was very talkative, she was always asking for more work, more work. She was very ambitious, very focussed on the future and very, very happy, bubbly," her former teacher Tracey said.


Shamim has spent 1,090 days on Nauru.
 

Misbah

Misbah is 13.

She's from Myanmar.

"We ran away from Burma because of the raping, [and] things that happening to the girls, and burning houses," she said.
It's now three years since Misbah arrived on Christmas Island with her mother and three sisters. She says there wasn't enough money for her father to come with them — so he planned to follow later.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.


 "On the boat it was so dangerous and even my little sister was crying, 'Oh I'm so scared of this swimming pool'," Misbah said.

"She thought that it was a swimming pool and my mum was crying too but when we get to Christmas Island we are so happy that we are safe, we are here, and I was thinking that I would get to meet my father again."

Misbah wants to go home, but her mother says they can't.

"I asked my mum but she said 'No it's not possible — if we go back we will get killed'."
Misbah has spent 1,179 days on Nauru and Christmas Island.

Batol

Batol is 10.

She's from Iran and came to Nauru with her father and sister.

 Forgotten Children, meet Batol.

Batol wants to be a vet.

She's a keen student and is having long distance lessons with her teacher from the detention centre, who is now back in Australia.

Batol has spent 976 days on Nauru — nearly a third of her lifetime.

Hossein

Hossein is 19.

He's from Iran where he planned to study medicine.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.


 "You know like everyone else my age, we've got a dream and my dream is to study medicine and be a surgeon," he said.


Hossein has spent 1,132 days on Nauru."


From ABC TV.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...

Wow!.....some "visitor" to Ferryland in Newfoundland