Iraqi translator Essam Hamoudi worked for American, British and Australian forces in Iraq for five years, which resulted in militant groups threatening his life.After two years of stalled visa applications to the US and the UK, Australia fast-tracked him to permanent residency status in June 2008.
Essam, 28, describes his progress in Australia, what he left behind, and his plans for the future.
"If you’d spoken to me this time last year, you’d be talking to a different person. I’ve spent the last 12 months getting to know the place.
It’s a big thing to understand the people, to learn the transport system and to get to know your way around.
It was also a good time to think about what had happened to me.
"My fiancee’s family cancelled our engagement. They didn’t want their daughter engaged to a dead person."
I was recovering from the terror, putting back on the weight I had lost.
Until I arrived in Australia, it had been a long, long process of nothing happening with my British and American visa applications. Then I got an email from the Australians inviting me to apply.
I went for an interview on 14 May, and 10 days later I was accepted.
I arrived in Australia with about 30 other Iraqi translators on 7 June. It was amazing – almost too fast!
I had worked with the Americans and the British much more than the Australians, so it never crossed my mind to apply to come here.
I started getting threats in 2006. I stayed at home for six months. When I went back to work, it started again, so for the final two years I was working on and off.
My memory of that time is not entirely clear, I hate that period in my life. I received so many threatening letters, I started throwing them away.
The Mehdi militia sent me letters with bullets inside, with a knife inside. They wrote stuff all over my parents’ main gate.
I changed the sim card in my mobile a couple of times, but once you give the new number to friends, it goes everywhere. I kept guns in my bedroom in my parents’ house, like a soldier.
I am normally active, I like to go out to see friends, go for a walk. But sometimes my parents and oldest brother tried to keep me alive by keeping me a prisoner in the house.
Sometimes when I just had to get out, I’d wear a bullet-proof jacket. I was expecting to be shot when I was driving, or having a coffee.
I was engaged to be married, but after what happened, my fiancee’s family cancelled the engagement. They didn’t want their daughter engaged to a dead person. It was a certainty, just a matter of time.
"The Australian government has been so supportive, I am speechless"
So to go from that, to Sydney in a matter of weeks with no preparation…
We have been given great help here. We did a security course and have been volunteering as security guards. We get government help of up to 1,010 Australian dollars ($835) a month.
An Iraqi I met here suggested I help on the doors of the Queen Victoria shopping centre.
This was so good for me, it stopped me just sitting in my room and helped me understand Australian people a bit.
I am now living with an Iraqi guy from my home town, Samawa. We met briefly back there when he was a reporter, although we didn’t know each other.
Then we met in the hotel in Sydney and now we are like brothers.
And now I’m starting my life. I am qualified in computer science, but I want to switch to civil engineering.
If I pass an English proficiency certificate and gain a place, the Australian government will pay for my university course. I will stay here and pay them back.
I cannot tell you how kind the Australian government has been. They have been so supportive, I am speechless.
And people in Australia treat you so nicely. I thought I might face discrimination because of my colour, or something. But here, everyone is equal, it makes me so happy!
Of course I miss my family, my brothers in Iraq. It’s a huge gap inside me which cannot be covered by the phone calls. Sometimes you just need to feel them physically.
But I’ve been given a big opportunity here. My degree will take four years, then I will work here for 10, 15 years.
After that I’m going to go back to Iraq and to rebuild my country.
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