Together Again, A War-torn Family Beats The Odds
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday December 15, 2008
THERE are everyday happy families and there are happy families who have done it hard. When you have survived a civil war, seven years of separation where you believed your husband and children were dead, refugee camps and Australian immigration obduracy, the happiness is that much sweeter.
This Christmas, for the first time in 10 years, Abi Sesay will have all of her family with her, and it shows in her face. She will take them to Olympic Park and to see the Harbour Bridge. At home in Menai their youngest child, 17-month-old, Little Prince, is still wary of his newly arrived dreadlocked father, but he has started to call him Da-da.Seven months ago, struggling with postnatal depression, post traumatic stress disorder, mounting immigration-related bills and a seemingly indifferent bureaucracy, she was almost suicidal. She sat in a darkened house as her young children created havoc around her, barely able to talk. "You keep on waiting: waiting, waiting, waiting. [The Immigration Department] are punishing you," she said. All that has changed last month with the arrival of her husband and daughters, who she thought were killed when rebel soldiers overran the Sierre Leone capital, Freetown, in 1999."I don't know how to say it," said Ms Sesay, of their arrival. "To have my family back in Australia makes me so very happy." Abi, 35, who escaped first to Guinea, in West Africa, came to Australia in 2000 on a humanitarian visa and is now an Australian citizen. She worked as a Qantas kitchenhand before stopping to care for her young children.In 2004 Ms Sesay heard through the refugee grapevine that her partner, Mohemed Kamara, her daughter Hannah, 9, and his daughter Abba, 12, might still be alive. She returned to Freetown in 2006 and the couple were married in traditional and Western-recognised ceremonies to formalise their relationship. Little Prince was conceived on the honeymoon. She also has engaging twins, Frank and Joshua, 6, from a brief unhappy relationship in Australia. In the nine years since the couple was separated, Mr Kamara has cared for Abba and Hannah. He and the girls speak good English.Since 2006 Ms Sesay has been fighting for the right to bring her family back together. For more than two years she has battled the Immigration Department, which misplaced her file, and has spent thousands of dollars on police and medical clearances and expensive DNA tests to prove her case. "She's a strong woman," said Sue O'Brien, her social worker. "She was never going to give up. She fought and she fought to get her family here." Last week she thanked her social workers, refugee advocates, immigration lawyers and Herald readers for their help. After her story was published in the Herald in April readers donated more than $6000 to pay for the DNA tests and help with the family's air fares to Australia."The day I read the story I wrote a cheque for $1850 [the cost of the DNA tests]," Karen Schembri, 38, of Greenwich, told the Herald in April. "She's come from Sierra Leone, one of the most violent places on Earth. She's almost there, but not quite. She's suffering depression, she was working at Qantas, she's trying to give it a go, but these hurdles keep coming up." The reunion comes at a price. Ms Sesay will lose her single parent benefit with the arrival of her husband, and Mr Kamara, who came on a spousal visa, is not eligible for welfare for two years. He plans to have work well before that. In Sierre Leone he worked as an airport baggage handler and in factories and supermarkets. Last week he went for a factory job interview in Greenacre. Mr Kamara said that in Africa the girls used to ask him what Australia would be like. "In Africa we are in suffering," he told them. "Here their mum makes their breakfast. In Africa, if you don't have a dollar a day, you can't get it. Now, I believe if I work I will make some money and live with my family. Even with nothing I am happy, seeing my wife and kids."
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
Share This