Chaman Yari likes his life in Swan Hill but it won’t be complete until he is joined by the people that matter to him most.
The man who sought refuge in Australia via a risky boat journey in 2010 was, before the rise of the Taliban brought turmoil to his homeland, a successful businessman.
Yari, as he prefers to be known, was a laboratory technician with his own pharmacy clinic.
He was married with four young children when the family was forced to flee to Pakistan after the Taliban began persecuting his family.
“I didn’t want to go but we had no choice, it was a matter of safety and survival,” Yari said.
“I had heard of people smuggling about 10 years before and it was very unsafe but as the situation worsened in Pakistan, I learnt about a new passage to Australia via Indonesia.”
To read more about this story, grab a copy of today’s Guardian (September 7).
