“Thank you,” Mohammad Ibrahim told the people of Apollo Bay. “Today I am proud to call Australia my home.”
During this country’s longest war in Afghanistan, Mohammad Ibrahim worked on Australia’s behalf, as an interpreter for a government-sponsored aid project in Uruzgan province.
Hiding over the border in Pakistan, Ibrahim – with his wife, Amina, their son, Daniel, and toddler, Helen – had been told his cards were marked. Police knew where they lived. With 36 hours to go before their visas expired, they were preparing to be marched back into the hands of the Taliban.
Then, in the middle of the night, an email arrived bearing four Australian humanitarian visas.
Slowly but inexorably, the people of Apollo Bay willed Ibrahim’s freedom into existence.