‘I feel like I’m home... It lifts you up’
Dahir Abdirahman finally has a country, 10 years after fleeing Somalia. But Geraden Cann reports not all are so lucky, as Covid restricts intake.
WHEN refugee Dahir Abdirahman arrived in New Zealand just days before the Government shut the borders, he knew little about Covid-19.
Weeks later, he spent the alert level 4 lockdown at South Auckland’s Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre, with a family of six, and another man from Pakistan, as his only company.
‘‘Each block had a time
[when] they could go out at only that time, and have one-hour walking inside the grounds.’’
It was hard, he says, but the care was excellent, with Immigration staff checking in daily to ensure he was okay. Three reliable meals a day was a nice change.
Abdirahman is one of just 31 refugees brought into the country in 2020 after resettlement departures were suspended as part of the global pandemic response.
Sixteen more refugees arrived in New Zealand on Tuesday, bringing the total number to make it in since Covid-19 closed the border to 47. The annual quota is 1500.
Another nine people are under consideration, their arrival dependent on safe passage to New Zealand, an Immigration official says.
Red Cross general manager for migration Rachel O’Connor says every case brought in under the Government’s current emergency provision is a life or death scenario.
Abdirahman hopes telling his story will prompt the Government to renew efforts to bring more refugees in.
The 34-year-old fled Somalia in 2010, first seeking safety in Kenya and then Indonesia, where he spent over five years
awaiting resettlement.
The first year and seven months in Tanjung Pinang city, in the Indonesian province of Riau Islands, were spent in a single crowded hall. No-one was allowed out until they received official refugee status, Abdirahman says.
‘‘There were a lot of floods, a lot of rain. It was very dirty, there’s not enough medical, not enough food.
‘‘People got a lot of diseases, a lot of people had asthma and couldn’t sleep in the night. It’s something you can’t imagine really.’’
Once he received refugee status, Abdirahman says he was moved to a shared room in Jakarta, where he spent four more years.
‘‘It was still limited, you can’t travel to other cities. You can’t
participate in any education class, you can’t look for work, you can’t even meet the other community because they don’t want to integrate refugees.’’
Abdirahman knew people who took their own lives during those times, having given up hope life could get better.
‘‘They become hopeless. So I ask [the] New Zealand Government and New Zealand people, as much as they can, help anyone.’’
Abdirahman has not seen his wife since 2014 after they were separated during his flight from Somalia to Indonesia. The two kept in contact when they could via online messages. Today, she is a phone call away.
‘‘It’s very, very, very important to hear her every day when I wake up and call her and get her situation.
‘‘I told her that one day she will return to me, and we can live together.’’
When Abdirahman left Indonesia he says he knew very little about the coronavirus that now dominates world headlines. It was only when he arrived in New Zealand he realised what was happening.
He spent three months at the Mangere resettlement centre while the country was in lockdown, twice the usual stay, and finally arrived in Wellington on June 12.
Abdirahman has mobility issues from a hip dislocation he suffered as an 11-year-old. He says he suffered the injury when a group of men from another clan threw him into a ditch.
‘‘I was a child, I didn’t understand what was going on. I tried to fight with them.
‘‘They were beating my family, my mother and my father.
‘‘They killed my uncle.’’
The same clan later burned down Abdirahman’s family home, he says.
In March 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation of Migration suspended resettlement departures for refugees as part efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.
The following August, the UNHCR announced the resumption of resettlements to countries that had appropriate capacity, processes and safe travel routes in place.
In October, the New Zealand Government agreed to resettle a limited number of refugee quota cases under emergency priority.
An Immigration spokesman says as the Covid-19 response progresses, the Government will consider when resettlement under the Refugee Quota Programme can resume. There is no way of knowing what will happen in 2020/21, he says.
Now settled in New Zealand, Abdirahman has enrolled in a language school to improve his English, and intends to work once his hip has been operated on.
‘‘The community that I live with are very nice, they are friendly people, they welcome me very well.
‘‘I feel like I am home. I forgot all that bad situation when I got a better start. Everything as I go forward is getting better. It lifts you up.’’