177 Nations of Tasmania Mark Thomson

To mark Refugee Week 2024, here's a compilation of stories from five of the interviews I've done in the last 12 months that reflect different aspects of the refugee experience from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
There's Ieva's story of her whole family walking 200km to get to the port of Riga to escape the oncoming Soviet Army, Sandra's tale of when a to-close-for-comfort missile attack was the final straw for her family to leave Damascus. Khadga explains how ethnic Nepalis were brutally imprisoned, threatened and expelled from Bhutan and Lawrence describes his memories of life of being a South Sudanese refugee in a camp in Uganda. Finally, Aubert explains part of the legacy for genocide survivors from Rwanda and the long-lasting effect it has.

Image attribution under Creative Commons 2.0
Creator: Mirek Pruchnicki 
Copyright: Mirek Pruchnicki | Flickr

Tunisia is a small northern African country, majority Muslim and Arabic-speaking, but also strongly connected with other cultures of the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Akram is, at least at the time of recording, the only Tunisian in Tasmania. Yet Tasmania was an intentional choice by Akram, who arrived here in 2023 with his Filippino wife and two young children. Previously they had been living in Qatar, where Akram had worked for around 10 years. He had originally moved there to take a job at the Sheraton Hotel.

Despite having done thorough research before arriving, there were some shocks. The first six months was quite a struggle but as Akram puts it, he learnt to be patient and accept new situations and now life is looking up for him and his family.



Music credit : "Sidi Mansour" - Ahmed Alshaiba ft Ahmed Mounib, Mazin Samih.

Malawi is a small country that fits like a thin sliver between the Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique. It's become known as the "beating heart of Africa" for being a sanctuary for people from some of the war-torn and troubled nations nearby. With a population of around 19 million, it's also one of the continent's most densely populated.



Mwase's story begins by the shore of Lake Malawi, Africa's third largest lake and a feature of huge importance to the life and economy of the country. Although Mwase grew up in a small town, he was curious about the world and a backbacking trip around southern Africa opened his eyes to other cultures and lifestyles. When he returned to Malawi, he met an Australian volunteer, who he eventually married, and cutting a long story short. lead to his big move to Tasmania in the early 2000s.

Tasmania in the early 2000s was only just starting to see a few faces from Africa on the streets, and discrimination and finding a sense of community were just some of the challenges Mwase had to deal with. He became involved with community care work and incorporated his passion and skills in music into this, and has been involved in numerous musical projects in his time in Tasmania.

Bhutanese now make up Tasmania's largest refugee community, and also on of the major migrant populations living in the state. Yet many Tasmanians know little about them and their story.

In the early 90s many Bhutanese of Nepali ethnicity, were expelled from country, often with threats or actually use of violence, and forced to live in refugee camps in Nepal. For many years they lived in limbo in these camps, hoping to one day return to their former homeland.

In Khadga's case, he and his family lived in the camp for 19 years before being accepted for settlement in Australia. Through the research he had been able to do at the time, Khadga had come to the conclusion that Tasmania would be the best place for them to settle given it's similar climate and topography to Nepal.

Initial adjustments were tough but Khadga succeeded in getting first a qualification in Child Care, and then Nursing and Paramedics. He currently works as an Aged Care Nurse, but also is a co-owner of a business providing disability care.

Bosnia Herzegovina is perhaps sadly best known for the brutal war waged there in the 1990s between Serbs, Croats and Muslims. An estimated 100,000 were killed and millions became war refugees.

Mia, as a 4 year old , was one of those many that fled the war, and her family took refugee in Croatia, where she would grow up and receive her schooling.

At 18 years, Mia received a funny message on MySpace from some random Aussie guy. He was thinking to come to Croatia. They seemed to click and when they met Mia quickly felt she'd met the man she wanted to be with. A few years later she had moved to Launceston, Tasmania and got married. The first few years would prove to be a steep learning curve, both experiencing married life and a new culture.

In Croatia, she had studied Architecture, and though she would complete further studies to become qualified, her first job in Tasmania was actually in a surf shop.

Although Estonia is a small country far away on the other side of the world, there has been a long-standing, though small Estonian community since the aftermath of WW2, when many migrants from the Baltics settled in Tasmania.



Triin is a more recent arrival, having settled in Tasmania a bit over 10 years ago after a career in professional volleyball in Europe. In fact, volleyball is the main sport for women in Estonia, and was through this that she met her Tasmanian husband, who was also playing volleyball in Europe.



When they both reach the stage in the careers when retirement was looming, they had to make a decision as to where to live together, and Tasmanian seemed to be the most viable option.

Though in some ways, settling down in Tasmania was a relatively smooth process for Triin - she got work quickly and the language was never a problem, but there were some cultural differences that were a challenge to adapt to, not least the very different style of communication and social relations compared with the norm in Estonia.

Triin continues to play volleyball in Tasmania and help develop local players with the skills and knowledge that she brings from Europe.

We also discuss the Estonia love of foraging and choral singing, a strong feature of other Baltic cultures also.