Imagine that your mother or father arrives home from work one day and tells you that the police are about to arrive to arrest the whole family, because of your family’s religious beliefs. You are told to pack a small backpack and be ready in 2 minutes. A family friend drives you overland to Darwin where you climb aboard a yacht. Your parents hand over thousands of dollars in cash. Six weeks later the yacht leaves you on a Japanese beach. Police arrive and take you to a detention centre which is prison and home to refugees like yourself from various parts of the world, all speaking different languages. Only a few other people speak English. The guards, canteen staff, doctor etc. all speak Japanese. Your parents tell you that they are applying for refugee status in Japan, which means you will be allowed to live in the country, go to school there and eventually get a job.
1. What would you pack in your backpack?
- Phone, clothes, money, iPod, toiletries
2. What would you miss most if you had to leave your home, your school, Australia?
- Family, friends, my dog, freedom
3. What would be some of the problems of living in a detention centre in a foreign country?
- You would not understand what everyone around you is talking about; you would not know how they live their normal life so you wouldn’t be able to fit in.
4. What would be the biggest challenges for you if you and your family were accepted as refugees?
- Learning the language, making new friends, learning the way of life
5. Why is this ‘imagine’ story a very unlikely one?
- It is unlikely because in Australia no one is judged or disrespected based on their religion.
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