Trauma clouds refugee’s life

By Shaun Inguanzo
ARAN Mylvaganam, 24, fled a strife-torn Sri Lanka to seek refuge in Australia – the land of opportunity.
So why, then, did he spend eight years suffering from depression?
That’s the question on my mind as we sit down for a coffee and a chat.
To the naked eye, Aran is a young person with an incredible motivation to succeed in life.
At just 24 years old, he is degree qualified, is working behind the scenes at a major insurance firm, part-owns a service station with his brother Ken, and is a volunteer for the Muso Network and at Greater Dandenong youth events.
So it’s hard to believe that just eight years ago Aran, a Dandenong resident, was battling depression.
But, as part of Refugee Week, Aran revealed that making the transition into a foreign country – even a nation full of liberties and with opportunities to succeed – is not an easy one, especially for a young person.
Aran arrived in Australia in 1997 on a flight from Malaysia.
He had spent a large part of his life in Jaffna, as a Tamil in Sri Lanka where a civil war between the Singhalese government and Tamil residents still rages.
While he never found it unusual to be living in a land focussed on a war, the turning point in Aran’s life began when his older brother was killed by a government air strike that wiped out the school he was attending.
His family fled Jaffna and he soon became separated from his parents, other brother, and sister.
Left only with his uncle, the pair arrived at Columbo and Aran’s uncle exercised his contacts to convince troops that the Tamil pair could enter the city.
Once inside Columbo, Aran’s uncle introduced him to an ‘agent’.
“Australians call them people smugglers,” Aran said.
“He had to pay $14,000 back then in Australian dollars.
“He had a good business in Jaffna and was able to borrow the money from some good contacts.” Aran, aged 13, then took a boat to Malaysia where the agent had arranged for him to catch a passenger flight to Sydney.
At Sydney airport, Aran was found to be an illegal immigrant – but he says that was always the plan.
“That’s the idea, there is no way you should go out into the country, even if you’re given the chance,” he said.
He said airport officials bribed him with chocolate to tell his story to a Tamil interpreter.
After three months in a New South Wales detention centre, Aran was approved for residency and was reunited with his brother Ron, who was 17 at the time.
They were taken into custody by a couple who acted as their legal guardians, and began their new lives in Dandenong.
And yet, a new world with exciting opportunities could not suppress the feelings of sadness Aran felt.
He had fled home, moved to a foreign country, left his parents and other family members behind, and spent three months as a young child, alone, in a detention centre. Aran worked but only to send money back to Sri Lanka to support his displaced and poverty stricken relatives.
But now Aran has changed. Perhaps more so than 24-year-olds born here, he has taken every opportunity that has come before him in an effort to move on from his depression and create a new life in Australia.
This week, Aran thanked Greater Dandenong residents for their patience with refugees, acknowledging that although some created trouble, they would soon adapt to their new lives.