What would you do if...

What would you do if this happened to you...?

‍

You're a 21-year-old married mother of two babies.

Your husband has gone to fight with the rebels in the hills not far from your government-controlled village.

He's joined the rebel army as he, like most others in the village, are against the government's forced assimilation policies that put heavy punishments on using the language most of the villagers speak.

Anyone found to be linked to the rebels will be arrested and have their house burnt down.

Your children also face being taken away from you for their "protection" and sent to orphanages in the other side of the country, where they'll be taught not to speak in your language, and possibly be adopted to other families.

You later find out that your husband died of wounds sustained from fighting on the front line while being stretchered to the base hospital.

You're left a widow with two babies at age 22, and this being a patriarchal society, being a single mother is simply not an option, so you're reliant on your in-laws' goodwill.

The war ends with the government defeating the rebels after having dropped napalm on the surrounding villages, killing most of their inhabitants.

You're now a liability on your family as you're tainted as an "enemy" and they make you know it.

Your options are to risk fleeing across the closed border 25 kms to the north or to appeal for help from your father who you've not seen ever since he went to Australia when you were four years old.

Fortunately, your auntie, who's also in Australia, has been nagging your father to help you, so he does by wiring the money to get you on a train and then a boat to come to Australia.

The authorities allow you to leave... actually, they're glad you're leaving, but they let you know that you no longer have citizenship and will never be allowed entry back into the country of your birth.

You're not allowed to take your two children with you, so you're unsure if or when you'll ever see them again.

Off you go to the scary other side of the world, when the furthest you've ever been before was to the market at the big town 10 kms away from your village.

This is what happened to my grandmother, my mother's mother, who was made a refugee from the Greek Civil War in 1949. Her two children and her mother later came to Australia in the mid-1950s.

My grandmother was only allowed once to go back to her birthplace and that was during a rare amnesty in 1987.

Being a refugee is not fun. No one wants to be a refugee.

‍