Para Paheer cheated death when the tiny fishing vessel he was travelling on sank after 30 days at sea.
He then survived Australia’s detention system, and on Wednesday 20 June was the major winner at the Friends of Refugees World Refugee Day awards.
Mr Paheer accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from keynote speaker – and former Australian Human Rights Commission president – Gillian Trigg at the Refugee Week and Refugee Recognition Awards at Springvale Town Hall.
The Art Achievement nod went to Amir Tehrani, twin sisters Maya and Sarah Ghassali shared the Youth Achievement award, Shokria Hakimi received the success and Integration award, and Shaber Ahmed Ayobi was named the Sports Athlete of the Year.
Amir Abdi won the All Abilities Award, the Business Achievement honour went to Nirma Murugumoorthy, Djibril Diallo accepted the Refugee Employee award, Nicole White took home the Refugee Champion award, Baqir Alidad received the Academic Achievement award, and Zacharia Dhieu, Neil Para, Unus Mohammad and Asif Mohsini shared the Service to the Community nod.
Guests at the event heard that Mr Paheer was arrested and tortured for political activism in his homeland Sri Lanka before escaping to India in 2007.
He fled when Tamils were being forcibly returned to Sri Lanka towards the end of the war.
A gas tanker rescued Mr Paheer and 26 others when the fishing boat they were on sank, but 12 men died.
He was the only English speaker on the boat so it fell to him to radio for help and work with rescuers to retrieve and identify the dead.
Mr Paheer arrived in Australia in November 2009, spent two years in Christmas Island Detention Centre and was released into community detention in Apollo Bay before receiving permanent resident status.
He’s since worked in various health and community services roles, and last year wrote a book called The Power of Good People to share his story.
Amir Tehrani started an art group in Dandenong for people seeking asylum.
Participants use art to convey their personal experience, remember their homeland or imagine a positive future after resettlement.
Twin sisters and Gleneagles Secondary College Year 11 students Maya and Sarah Ghassali migrated to Melbourne in 2012 from Syria.
They last year developed and launched podcast Refugees on Air that has thousands of listeners around the world.
In each episode a refugee shares their achievements and the difficulties they encountered while settling into Australia.
Shokria Hakimi settled in Australia more than 25 years ago after fleeing war in Afghanistan and has worked with other new arrivals in Melbourne’s South-East.
She delivers health promotion messages to the Afghan community in their own language, arranged community information sessions to distribute health information, and advocated for women who were experiencing violence.
Shaber Ahmed Ayobi involves refugees and people seeking asylum into the All Nations Social Cricket team in Dandenong.
The team meets weekly during the cricket season and monthly throughout the year and brings vulnerable individuals and different communities together for social matches.
Zacharia Dhieu has worked in Melbourne’s North to help African communities to settle and integrate and started Life of a Refugee to raise awareness in schools about refugee experiences.
Sri Lankan-born Neil Para settled in Ballarat with his young family in 2013 and has volunteered extensively with the SES, Black Hill Primary School and environment groups.
Unus Mohammad arrived in Australia in 2015 and is a leader in Melbourne’s Rohingya community.
He’s volunteered for the Red Cross and visited people living in Bangladesh’s refugee camps with aid.
Asif Mohsini arrived in Australia seeking asylum in 2010 and, while in detention, delivered English and computer classes to help others to prepare for settlement in Australia.
In 2012 he was elected Afghan Australian Civil Society Organisation president, worked to establish the Victorian Afghan Association Network, and teaches at RMIT.
Amir Abdi runs inclusive events and volunteers to reduce social isolation for visually impaired people living in Melbourne’s Inner-East, and represented Australia in low-vision team sport goalball.
Nirma Murugumoorthy fled Sri Lanka’s civil war and was held in mandatory detention in Australia for more than six years.
He now employs other asylum seekers through Nirma’s Community Cleaning and in 2015 helped to found social enterprise Tamil Feasts, where Tamil men share food from their homeland with the wider community.
Djibril Diallo is the youth empowerment program co-ordinator at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC).
Kanmani Barthasarathy arrived from Southern India as a nurse with 10 years of experience, but her qualifications haven’t been recognised in Australia.
She’s volunteered as a concierge at Monash Health to provide language support, has worked as a research assistant, is a community liaison worker with Red Cross to help prevent forced marriage in Australia, and has studied to attain a PhD in nursing.
She has been an AMES community guide and volunteers with Enliven Victoria as a peer educator.
Nicolle White started the Refugee Stories Instagram account in 2015 to share moments from the lives of refugees who’ve gained Australian residency and their reflections about leaving their home countries, the journey here and their experience settling into the Melbourne community.
Baqir Alidad left a small village in Afghanistan due to the ongoing persecution of the Hazara people and settled with his family in Iran.
When he was 15 he was imprisoned for being Hazara, driven to the border and forced to walk back into Afghanistan.
He was permanently separated from his family and arrived in Australia by boat seeking protection at age 16.
Mr Alidad completed his VCE and pursued higher education thanks to community supporters who established the Sangpool Asylum Seeker Scholarship and raised funds.
He worked part-time as a ward clerk at Monash Hospital and graduated with a nursing degree.
