Are You Listening?

Refugee Week 2021

By Azra Clark

Imagine: A place where you risk your life daily, because of elements often out of your own control: your skin, heritage, identity, or beliefs. Could you leave behind all that you know to escape rape, torture, even death? What would push you to board a too-small, fractured boat with 300 others? Can you see the waves, lapping closer? Can you feel the pressure of bodies packed tight; hear a child’s muffled whimper? At this moment, do you dare hope? In the waiting, you could build a world in your mind; one where foundations do not lurch. For a moment you let yourself wonder. You breathe.

Imagine: You are drowning in bodies, precious oxygen leaking from your lips. You hear splintering. Will you be pushed deeper into this endless liquid ice? You flail. You breathe. You sink. There are machines that echo rumblings through the water and hands that reach into the freezing abyss. Do you drown?

This is not just imagination. It is not a faraway horrible maybe; it is a life lived or lost in a desperate escape. Have you heard even one of the millions of stories like this?

On October 28th, 2015, 42 people of the 300 aboard a boat carrying Amel al-Zakout died.

This is one day of many. A repeated occurrence.

This time, rescuers arrived in time.

This time, there were survivors.

Amel al-Zakout “now lives with her baby daughter and partner. Self-possessed with a warm, infectious smile, she expresses herself in careful, deliberate English” (Healy 2020). She attends university and is an active part of her community. She is a survivor.

In 2021 from 20th to the 26th of June people everywhere participated in World Refugee Week. It was a time of remembrance for the struggles of refugees, action towards building communities of acceptance and a celebration of harmony and togetherness. This year’s theme was Unity – The Way Forward.

Unity: the state of being one; oneness. The Refugee Council explains that this theme encapsulates “the opportunity to start afresh and rebuild our lives together. To count our blessings and to put them to work. Existing and emerging communities. Working Together” (“Refugee Week 2021 Theme: Unity”).

The Australian Refugee Council has organised many ways for each individual to be a part of Refugee Week:

• Host a “Share a Meal, Share a Story event”. It is an online or in person opportunity to connect, with recipes and stories from the Refugee Week ambassador.

• Spread the word. Share Refugee week content or even sign up to be an Amplifier on the Refugee Council website

• Get involved with a Refugee week event. To find out more and be a part of Refugee Week for next year click here.

If you are interested in Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers, click here to visit Amnesty’s campaign against appalling treatment in Australian offshore detention centres.  

World Refugee Week recognises experiences that are so often swept away. 1 in 97 people are forcibly displaced, involuntarily leaving their homes in search of safety. Today, there are more people forcibly displaced than born every year. Amel al-Zakou was one of the approximately 79.5 million recorded people who sought asylum in the last ten years. Not every person can be recorded. Every one of the 79.5 million is a survivor of struggle, each person with their own individual story to tell.

Are you listening?