Family flight to freedom
WHERE THEY CAME FROM
ASA stray bullets flew overhead, AbuA Newstead ran for his life.
He had been playing football ba in his home country Sierra L Leone when war broke out m more than a decade ago.
Unable to find his family, h he sought asylum first in n nearby Ghana, before the A Australian Government accepted ce him as a refugee.
“I didn’t have time to grab m my family because we had th the sporadic gunshots,” he sa said.
“I always saw that in my mind – I wanted to see my family.
“You don’t know exactly where you’re going because you’re just running away for your life.”
Through friends, Mr Newstead learnt where his family was and five years ago was able to secure safe passage for his son Abdul (left) to join him in Cairns.
His younger brother also recently made the journey.
Yesterday Abdul, who has just finished school and now works in the disability sector, was officially welcomed as an Australian citizen at the Australian Citizenship Day ceremony at the Cairns Hilton Ballroom.
Abdul said that he had taken advantage of opportunities in Australia that he wouldn’t have had in his home country.
“You’ve got good job opportunities and if you want to land something you can do it easily – you just have to focus on it if you want to do it,” he said.
“I love it because when you come to some place new you’ve never seen a place like this and you’re excited.
“I was excited to see my dad too.”
Among the other 150-plus people to receive their citizenships yesterday was the De Swardt family, who travelled to Cairns from South Africa almost 12 years ago.
Ronnie De Swardt said he and his wife Bonita brought their son Di-Jannes and daughter Zan-Cheline to Australia for a better life.
He said South Africa had become less safe in the time they had been away.
“My brother was hijacked at gunpoint in a toilet at a service station stopping for fuel,” he said.
“My parents have been attacked this year, assaulted while they were sleeping.
“Unfortunately we can’t all come over.”
Mr De Swardt said he felt he and his wife had provided a good future for their children by coming to Australia.
“We came for a country that offers freedom,” he said. Belgium, Brazil Canada, Cambodia Chile, China Columbia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Scotland, Samoa, Sierra Leone , South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey United States of America, Vietnam, Zimbabwe