Razaee has only a photo of his children after his move to Australia

Two years ago an Afghan man paid an expensive price to live in Australia.  The price was his family.  Read the incredible survival story of Ali Kosh Razaee, who just wanted to live in peace with those he loved.

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The Razaee family are Hazaras, a Shiite minority who makes up nine percent of Afghans.  This made it especially dangerous for them because the Hazaras were slaughtered in their thousands by the Taliban who are Sunni Muslim.

Towards the end of 2007, Razaee, his uncle and father were kidnapped by ten thugs and brutally beaten for hours.  The thugs then left them and Razaee’s father manage to thrust him out the window.

Razaee made his escape but his father’s dead body was found a week later.

Razaee was able to move his wife and children away to a safe area, but he and his brother were still in danger there.  A welder from Pakistan offered a loan of $7000 to smuggle one of them out of country but the welder wanted $2000 up front and demanded one of them stay behind to work off the rest.

His brother Muhammad volunteered.

“I didn’t want to leave him but …” Razaee trails off, his gaze far away. “We decided to save one of us. The threat was higher against me than my brother.

He went on to say: “Everything in our lives has been dangerous. At least we trust the smugglers more than we could trust the Taliban.”

After leaving his brother effectively enslaved in Pakistan, Razaee was put on a plane in Quetta.  He had never been on a plane and had no idea where he was going. 

Razaee says:  “They told us to keep our heads down, don’t be noticed.  If there were other refugees like me on the flight, I didn’t know about it. I didn’t understand any of it and didn’t speak to anyone the entire time.”

After ten hours passed the plane landed in Jakarta, Indonesia.  It was nearby that Razaee spent almost one month living in a hut made of reeds with eight other Afghan refugees.

He says:  “I didn’t know what would happen next. I didn’t know if my family were safe. I didn’t know where I was or if I would ever leave this hut.”

Eventually, a total of three months since he left Afghanistan, he managed to get on a flimsy boat crammed full of refugees.  There was barely enough food and most people were too sick to eat it anyway.  He lay aboard the boat expecting to die as it was rocked on the ocean.

An Australian Navy ship intercepted the boat.  Razaee had never heard of Australia had never felt such relief.  His only remaining possession was a photo of his three youngest children who were left behind. 

He was resued and granted refugee status to live in Adelaide. He is now awaiting results of his Australia visa application.