Filmmaker Steve Thomas started meeting asylum seekers in 2001, the year of the Tampa affair, 'children overboard' and the sinking of SIEV X, which resulted in 353 deaths.
These people suffered a lot while in detention. And now, they’re fixing our cars, they’re selling our houses, they’re doctors, they’re teachers. They're among us.
It was also the year former PM John Howard introduced the Pacific Solution and famously declared, 'We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come'.
As Thomas got to know more and more boat people, he quickly realised how much they were ‘just like you and me’.
'They were completely counter to the media portrayals—you know, queue jumpers, terrorists, strange religious fanatics,' he says.
Thomas decided he wanted make a film about these people, catching up with them today, more than a decade after that tumultuous period. The result is a powerful documentary called Freedom Stories.
'It’s a bit of an indictment that one would have to make a film with that kind of message, but that is exactly its purpose,' he says.
Over the course of the film we meet 12 participants from a range of Middle Eastern backgrounds, some of whom were children when they arrived. All spent between several months and several years in detention. All were found to be genuine refugees.
There’s Reyhana Akhy, a case officer at the Migrant Resource Centre in Adelaide. Her daughter Mariam was eight when they arrived and is currently studying criminology at university.
Mustafa Jawadi, a mechanic in Canberra, was 10 when the boat his family were on caught fire, killing two people. He was detained on Nauru for three years, and his younger brother Amil was born on the Pacific island.
Then there’s Sheri Shoari, who fled Iran as a single mother with her three young sons, one of whom she carried on her back the whole way due to his cerebral palsy. She now works full-time in a sewing factory in Adelaide and is training to be a truck driver, all while caring for her family.
'These people suffered a lot while in detention and now they’re fixing our cars, they’re selling our houses, they’re doctors, they’re teachers. They are among us and we’ve forgotten,' says Thomas.
Alana Elias is another case in point. A teacher originally from Iran, she says she’ll never forget the shock of being treated like a criminal when she arrived with her husband and two young sons.
They were told they would be welcomed, but when the Australia Navy intercepted their boat, it was not what she expected.
'I thought, "They’re not happy, they’re upset with us and it felt like we did something wrong." Then I realised, "Oh, we’re not wanted here."'
After eventually settling in Melbourne, Elias won a prestigious scholarship at RMIT, and completed her Master's in education. She says that because of her name, accent and appearance she struggled to find work in state schools, and eventually accepted a job at an Islamic school.
'I felt this urge to prove that I can be a very good citizen that contributes to society and supports the country. I do what I can and I taught my children to do the same. None of them is on the dole.'
Soon, however, all that effort will be China’s gain. She’s accepted a job as an English learning leader at an international school in Beijing. She says she is grateful to Australia and will back, however.
'I will gain better experience and will come back to support education here.'
Thomas says that Elias’ resilience and determination to contribute is representative of all the people he met and filmed.
'Its like, these are exactly the people we need in this country.'
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