Precis

On his sleepless nights, Imran paces the floor grappling with ghosts from half a world away and many months past.

I’m wide awake and I call my friends’ names. ‘Hey Zainal! Hey Faisal! Where are you?’ But they’re not here, they’re on Manus – Imran, 24, Rohingya refugee who spent nearly five years on Manus Island

But come daylight, Imran can revel in his new home - Chicago, 14,000 kilometres from Manus. It’s been more than seven years since, aged 16, he fled persecution in Myanmar. Along the way he was held hostage by people smugglers and detained in Indonesia before making his fateful journey to Christmas Island. Now, thanks to a refugee deal with the US, he has a job and is finishing school.

I’m free, that’s all that matters to me. People have been welcoming and I am loved. So, it’s home, it definitely feels like home – Imran

An old friend of Imran’s from Manus is also making a new life.  Amir was 14 when he left Iran. Now 25 and living in Vancouver on Canada’s west coast, Amir has a job in tourism and is set to study law. His good fortune flows from a chance meeting with Chelsea Taylor, a Melbourne nurse who worked on Manus and talked her Canadian-Australian parents into sponsoring him.

You rescued me from an island which so many governments and so many countries were not able to do – Amir, to Chelsea’s parents Wayne and Linda in Vancouver

Correspondent Eric Tlozek first met Amir and Imran on Manus Island more than 18 months ago. He follows them from behind the wire to their new lives in North America in the most intimate and detailed account so far of life for Manus refugees.

In Canada and the US, Tlozek meets Australian expats, like Wayne Taylor and fashion designer Fleur Wood, who are pitching in to help ex-detainees now that Australia is done with them.

When I heard about them being resettled in America I knew how little help they’d be getting - Fleur Wood, co-founder of Australian Diaspora Steps Up

Nearly 500 ex-Manus and Nauru detainees are scattered across the US, receiving only brief and basic support from the government. Wood’s group hustles to find them housing, bedding and clothing.

When Wood searches for some Rohingyas who are just off Nauru, she ends up at a rundown building in North Chicago where four men share a tiny apartment, eking out casual work, dishwashing and cleaning.  One is seriously ill.

After five years on Nauru, these men aren’t coping with their newfound freedom in America. They still want to come to Australia. Bizarrely, some even want to go back to Nauru.

But for those who are faring better, life is what you make of it.

You can be in the worst place on this planet and make it a heaven for yourself. And you can be in the best country on this planet and make it a hell for yourself – Amir in Vancouver

GFX over island GVs:
foreign correspondent

Music

00:00

ERIC TLOZEK: Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, a place where tranquillity and trauma co-exist.

00:27

Amir in boat

AMIR TAGHINIA: [Asylum Seeker] “We felt we are just thrown inside this cage,

00:36

Amir 100%

just like animals and we are just locked in there.  That’s it”.

00:43

Jungle

ERIC TLOZEK:  They went in search of freedom,

00:47

Detention centre. Men behind wire fence

and landed in a very special kind of hell.

00:52

BCU Amir

IMRAN MOHAMMED: [Asylum Seeker] “As soon as I stepped on their land, I knew that I would be tortured”.

00:59

Amir walks down autumnal tree lined street in Canada

Music

01:11

Amir walks with Tlozek

ERIC TLOZEK: Then fate saw them released on the far side of the world.

01:18

American flag flies

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “I am here, I am free and loved

01:23

Imran 100%

So it’s home.  It definitely feels like a home”.

01:26

Episode intro. Amir and Imran in USA and Canada

ERIC TLOZEK: New beginnings with new challenges.  Tonight, we join two men on their extraordinary odyssey towards the Promised Land.

01:30

GFX:  Foreign Correspondent

01:47

Boats. Super:
Manus Island, PNG

01:54

The Promised Land

02:01

Reporter: Eric Tlozek

02:06

Tlozek, Imran and Amir walking down to boat. Super:
reporter
Eric Tlozek

ERIC TLOZEK: [walking down to the water] “I think that’s our boat”.

02:12

Tlozek greets boat owner. Super:
July 2017

ERIC TLOZEK: “Thomas, morning!  How are you? I'm Eric."

THOMAS: [boat owner] “Hello Eric”.

ERIC TLOZEK: “Nice to meet you.  This is Amir and Imran”.

Getting on a boat is what put these young men

02:16

Tlozek, Imran and Amir board boat

on Manus Island. Today, we’re going to take them off it. 

02:28

This is the beginning of my journey with 24-year-old Amir Taghinia, a Christian convert from Iran and Imran Mohammed aged 23, a minority Rohingya who’s fled persecution in Myanmar.

02:40

Amir and Imran on the water

After four years in detention, they’re now permitted to move around Manus.  The controversial detention centre is being closed down.  Now the island is their prison, but there’s one other spot the refugees can visit.

02:59

Amir

AMIR TAGHINIA: “This island belongs to a guy called Robin.  He saw the guys once in the town and told them, you know if you want to have somewhere to have a little bit of peace, you can just come in here and relax, you know nobody’s going to disturb you here”.

03:18

Mandolin Atoll GVs

03:32

Boat arrives at Mandolin Atoll. Eric, Imran and Amir walk up beach

ERIC TLOZEK: Mandolin Atoll, just off Manus, is where the refugees see a different side to PNG. 

03:44

Robin waves from boat

The island’s custodian lets asylum seekers stay here for free.  He says losing his arm in a fishing accident has taught him to be sympathetic.

ROBIN: “When they come over to me I do welcome them. 

03:54

Robin 100%

I like them, they are like me.  Because they have problem in the country, that’s also that’s why they come over here to my place. That’s why I like them”.

04:11

Imran talks with young men on Mandolin atoll

ERIC TLOZEK: Most of Imran’s experiences on Manus haven’t been so positive.

04:25

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “When I entered the centre, I saw people were depressed and people were warehoused and the men were yelling,

04:33

Imran 100%. Super:
Imran Mohammed

and I straightaway knew this is going to be bad.  I’m not here to be processed.  I am here to be tortured”.

04:43

Imran cooks and shares meal with Robin

ERIC TLOZEK: Imran’s odyssey began aged just 16.  Escaping persecution in Myanmar for Malaysia, he was in succession held hostage by people smugglers, in immigration detention in Indonesia for almost two years and after a boat trip to Christmas Island, was detained and transported here.

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “I was treated like animals in many places.

04:53

Imran 100%

I was beaten by authorities.  I have experienced things in life that I shouldn’t have been in my young life.  It took my… it has destroyed my strength as a human being”.

05:25

Amir walking towards Manus church

[choir singing]

05:51

Church choir

05:59

Amir in church

AMIR TAGHINIA: “When I converted to Christianity, I was quite a stubborn person and I liked to question things.

06:06

Amir 100%. Super:
Amir Taghinia

I always like to question things and because I was a very young person, I started questioning

06:16

Amir in church

from the people that I wasn’t supposed to do that and it caused me troubles that I was almost getting killed”.

06:22

Church choir sings

06:32

ERIC TLOZEK: Amir left Iran as a 14-year-old boy to live in Malaysia.

06:43

Father Clement at pulpit

FATHER CLEMENT: [addressing congregation] “In our midst we have a brother, Amir. We are happy to have him with us because he has converted into our group of believers, Christians”.

06:51

Amir walks along path

ERIC TLOZEK: Fearing he’d be imprisoned after his Malaysian student visa expired, Amir also boarded a people smuggler boat  headed for Christmas Island.

AMIR TAGHINIA: “I had seen people

07:10

Amir 100%

getting on these boats.  I had seen these boats, that they were leaky boats.  I have seen them looking terrible and terrifying and I had no options.  I had to take it”.

07:21

Refugee boat shipwrecked at Christmas Island 2013

Music

07:37

ERIC TLOZEK: By 2013, more than a thousand asylum seekers had perished at sea, including many aboard this boat, smashed upon the rocks of Christmas Island. Amir and Imran arrived safely here after this tragedy, but in one sense their timing couldn’t have been worse.

07:42

Exterior. Manus detention centre

Landing just after the Labor Government declared that all future boat arrivals would never be settled in Australia.

08:07

Men file into detention centre

They joined 1,300 other single men on Manus, crammed into a centre that previously housed 350.

AMIR TAGHINIA: “The compounds were just

08:17

Amir 100%

like a chicken house and they would throw people in there and they would lock these doors. 

08:29

Amir walking in detention centre

Chains, locks, fences everywhere and all of them are guarded.  You can’t leave, you can’t go anywhere.  Anywhere you want to go you have to be escorted”.

08:35

ERIC TLOZEK: Another detainee secretly filmed Amir for this guided tour of life on the inside.

08:50

Amir to camera

AMIR TAGHINIA: “You see most of like almost everyone has covered their beds, because one of the most important pressure on people is because of the crampness, because of too many people together”.

09:00

Riots

ERIC TLOZEK: Over four years, Amir witnessed riots, beatings and a shooting attack by drunken soldiers.

09:12

AMIR TAGHINIA: “We saw people dying.  We saw people

09:30

Casket being loaded onto plane

crawling on the ground for pain.  I’ve seen people pulling out their own teeth. 

09:33

Amir 100%

I’ve seen people cutting their necks and many other things.  These four years was always, always, always a great trauma that I can never forget”.

09:42

Detention centre shots

ERIC TLOZEK: The only way out was a ticket to the homelands they’d fled, or resettlement in PNG.  But behind the scenes, an unusual refugee deal was being brokered.  In 2016, the US agreed to resettle up to 1,200 asylum seekers from Manus and Nauru, in America.

10:00

Nauru Airlines plane lands. Refugees disembark

It’s nearly six months since I met Amir and Imran.  Despite President Trump’s reluctance, the US refugee deal is still under way. But the details are opaque. 

10:29

Small groups of men are being flown from Manus to PNG’s capital, Port Moresby.  Some nationalities, Iranians and Somalis are rejected, but for the lucky ones, there’s a new life in America, and we get a tip off that Imran may be among them.

10:49

Men on hotel verandah, guards

The men are taken to a motel under heavy guard.  Australian Border Force officers have told PNG security

11:14

Security guard to Tlozek

not to let us film.

SECURITY: “Can you shut that thing off please”.

ERIC TLOZEK: “Why?”

SECURITY: “We are not allowed to take pictures here”.

ERIC TLOZEK: “Why not?”

SECURITY: As per the instructions from ABG.

11:12

[continues]

ERIC TLOZEK: “Excuse me, please don’t touch my camera.  That’s assault!”

SECURITY: “Don’t put the camera in my face anyway!  Don’t put that camera in my face, okay!”

11:34

Men on verandah

ERIC TLOZEK: We eventually confirm that Imran is here. 

11:39

Air Niugini plane lands

11:45

Imran at airport/Checking in for flight

And finally, after six long months waiting in Port Moresby, a decision.  This time, there are no guards or handcuffs.  This time, Imran won’t be flying as a prisoner.

11:49

IMRAN MOHAMMED: [at the airport] “I am going to have my real freedom soon and I’ll have control over my life.  So it’s very exciting”.

12:08

Imran, smiling, holds up boarding pass

ERIC TLOZEK: He doesn’t quite believe it until the boarding pass is in his hands.  Destination – America!

12:22

Tlozek hugs Imran

“Right see you in the US.  See you in the US.  Okay safe travels”.

12:30

Plane departs. Fade to black

Music

12:36

Fade up from black. Vancouver autumn leaves

12:47

Vancouver GVs

It’s autumn in Canada, and on the Vancouver waterfront residents embrace the vivid change of season.  This place was never in any resettlement plan and I’m surprised to be here.  But of the 1,300 men on Manus, one’s tenacity and good luck

12:55

Amir greets Tlozek at his home

has meant he’s managed to buck the system.

AMIR TAGHINIA: “Hi Eric!”

ERIC TLOZEK: “Long time! How are you?  Nice to see you man”.

After a secretive application process, Amir was granted protection in Canada.

13:18

Amir and Tlozek enter apartment

AMIR TAGHINIA: “Yeah, so this is where I live now”.

ERIC TLOZEK: “Oh very nice”.

AMIR TAGHINIA: “I call it an elf house”.

ERIC TLOZEK: On Manus, through force of personality and a good command

13:39

Amir makes tea

of English, Amir became a de facto leader.  In Canada, there’s anonymity, and a job at a local tourist attraction.

AMIR TAGHINIA: “I was on Manus Island I had like 1,500 people just running after me,

13:53

Amir interview in kitchen

wanting updates, wanting to know what’s the news, wanting to know when they get out of there.  Wanted me to do stuff for them.  But in here, all of a sudden, it’s just like boom, there is nobody around and nobody asking me anything”.

14:08

Amir makes tea

14:23

ERIC TLOZEK: “Oh it smells good!”

14:30

Amir 100%

AMIR TAGHINIA: “Life is different now compared to a place that you basically couldn’t call it life.  Basically, nothing.  But now it’s a so-called normal life here. 

14:38

Amir going to party in another apartment. In lift

Yeah, I just don’t know what to say.  When I came here, I just felt numb”.

14:59

Amir enters apartment. Hugs man and guests

MAN WEARING A PARTY HAT: “Hello Amir, how are you? Oh, it’s so good to see you. And you've brought goodies”.

ERIC TLOZEK: It’s the first anniversary of Amir’s arrival in Vancouver. His remarkable luck in getting to Canada is due to this unlikely group of people.  They’re all members of a private sponsorship group, an initiative where citizens provide money and support for refugees to resettle in Canada.

15:25

Wayne makes speech

WAYNE TAYLOR: “Naturally, as we all expected, it was a bit of an uphill battle for the early stages, but we’re standing here today and we’ve got one upstanding citizen of Canada now one year later”.

ERIC TLOZEK: Brought together by Canadian-Australian couple Wayne

16:00

Linda among guest

and Linda Taylor, the group raised almost $30,000 to bring Amir from Manus and support his first year in Canada.

16:16

Amir makes speech

AMIR TAGHINIA: “You rescued me from an island, which so many governments and so many countries were not able to do.  So many systems, so many departments, so many organisations so I appreciate it and thank you”.

16:26

Chelsea on skype to family and Amir

CHELSEA: "Hey, Dad."

WAYNE: "Hey, Chelsea. How you doing?"

ERIC TLOZEK: It all started when Amir met Wayne Taylor’s daughter, Chelsea, a Melbourne based nurse who worked on Manus vaccinating asylum seekers.

16:41

AMIR TAGHINIA: “Hi Chelsea”.

CHELSEA: “Hi Amir, how are you?”

16:55

Wayne 100%. Super:
Wayne Taylor

WAYNE TAYLOR: “Oh she was adamant, quite honestly, that we do something and yeah we were somewhat concerned that we could really achieve anything, having not been through it before, but we just said well we’ll give it a go”.

16:59

Amir at party

ERIC TLOZEK: A semi-retired political consultant, Wayne Taylor was undaunted by the complexities of refugee sponsorship, and so this well-connected group hit the phones, lobbying politicians and officials to bring Amir to Canada.

17:15

WAYNE TAYLOR: “It’s almost inconceivable what these people could be treated the way that they’ve been treated.  Certainly, from

17:38

Wayne 100%

the people who were part of our group, when they heard that story, felt that it was unfathomable that people could be kept basically as prisoners”.

17:44

Return to party. Group photo

17:55

Amir walks in rain to college

Music

18:03

ERIC TLOZEK:  Amir’s getting on with the life that detention on Manus interrupted

18:17

AMIR TAGHINIA: “This is Vancouver Community College or VCC.  This is the first place that I started continuing my education”.

18:24

Amir in class

LECTURER: [to the class] “Does the judge have to follow what the jury recommends and their verdict?”

AMIR TAGHINIA: [answers the lecturer] “No, judges can make their own decisions”.

I am planning to take things step by step, but I have been considering human rights law or psychology.

18:37

Amir 100%

I just want to do everything… one thing at a time.

18:55

Lakes and hills, mist, forest behind Vancouver near church

CHURCH CHOIR [singing Let It Be]

19:00

Interior church. Choir sing. Amir watches

ERIC TLOZEK: While Amir says his conversion to Christianity forced him to leave Iran, he now feels that religion is less important.  Today he makes a rare visit to a church. 

19:09

Amir hugs Joy

Two people from Amir’s sponsorship group are members of the Unitarian congregation here.

19:23

Amir 100%

AMIR TAGHINIA: “I like Christianity.  This is something that I always was very interested in since I was a very young kid, but I would rather say that I am not so much into any specific religion”.

19:34

ERIC TLOZEK: “But you -- this is your reason for getting out of Iran, isn’t it?”

AMIR TAGHINIA: “Yes”.

ERIC TLOZEK: “So how does that match up now?”

AMIR TAGHINIA: “Well, that’s one of the things that almost got me into trouble.  Yeah, I do still believe in it.  I see it as something that gets me connected”.

19:49

Choir sings, Amir watches

ERIC TLOZEK: Amir’s new life looks comfortable, but a year after arriving in Canada, he knows happiness isn’t guaranteed.

20:14

Amir walking/Vancouver scenery

AMIR TAGHINIA: “You can be in the worst place on this planet, the worst one, you can say, like let’s say Papua New Guinea, Manus Island, the worst place

20:25

Amir 100%

and make it a heaven for yourself, and you can be in the best country on this planet and make it a hell for yourself”.

20:40

American flag flies/Chicago. GVs

Music

20:48

ERIC TLOZEK: Over the border in the land of the free, around 500 refugees from Manus and Nauru have been resettled, scattered across the US in cities like Chicago, often with minimal support.  They’re not the Australian Government’s responsibility anymore,

20:58

Fleur driving

but many Australian ex-pats here feel compelled to help.  Heading into the north Chicago suburbs, is fashion designer Fleur Wood, co-founder of the group, Australian Diaspora Steps Up.

FLEUR WOOD: “I wanted to step up

21:21

and I knew lots of other Australians felt the same way and wanted to help these guys and kind of do what we should have done in the first place which is take care of these people”.

21:37

ERIC TLOZEK: More than 300 Australians have now volunteered and they’re stretched to the limit.

21:45

Fleur 100%. Super:
Fleur Wood

FLEUR WOOD: “For some of these guys, it really is terrible.  We’ve had you know groups of three and four guys that are living together and they only had one single mattress.  So they are taking turns sleeping on that single mattress.  You know, we have guys that arrived in the middle of winter with absolutely no winter clothing, with you know, thongs and shorts”.

21:53

Fleur and Nisha with bags of winter clothing

ERIC TLOZEK: Today, Fleur teams up with first time volunteer, Nisha Karna who left Melbourne to study for an MBA at a Chicago university.  Here, the priority is preparing for the savage winter ahead.

22:11

FLEUR WOOD: “So how did you get the money, raise the money to buy these things?”

NISHA KARNA: “I was crowd sourcing some friends at school”.

ERIC TLOZEK: They’re trying to locate a group of four Rohingya men recently arrived from detention on Nauru.

22:29

Fleur and Nisha in apartment building looking for Anayetullah.

FLEUR WOOD: [looking up stairwell] “Hi, we’re looking for someone called Anayetullah”.

WOMAN: “Anayetullah?”

FLEUR WOOD: “Yeah Rohingya”.

22:43

Anayetullah opens door behind Nisha

NISHA KARNA: “Hi…”

ANAYETULLAH FAZAL AHMAD: “Yes, how are you?”

NISHA KARNA: “Good.  Are you Anayetullah?

ANAYETULLAH FAZAL AHMAD: “Yes”.

FLEUR WOOD: “Oh we found him, thank you”.

NISHA KARNA: “I’m Nisha, nice to meet you”.

22:51

Fleur and Nisha in apartment with Anayetullah

FLEUR WOOD: “Hi Anayetullah, hello, did we wake you up?  We’re sorry”.

23:04

Nisha gives winter clothes to Anayetullah

NISHA KARNA: “So I know it gets really cold in Chicago in the winter, so we have some blankets for you.  We also have some jackets for you ,because again, when it gets really cold you’ve got to wear lots of layers in Chicago.  So a nice big jacket here. 

23:13

Anayetullah tries the jacket on

Oh, it’s perfect.  Look at you!  You look officially like you’re from Chicago now”.

23:28

Apartment bedroom

ERIC TLOZEK: The four men share a one-and-a-half-bedroom apartment.  Picking up casual work as café dishwashers and cleaners at the airport. 

23:40

Rohingya refugee, Anayetullah, still dreams of going to Australia.

23:54

Anayetullah talks to Nisha. Super:
Anayetullah Fazal Ahmad

ANAYETULLAH FAZAL AHMAD: “I’m not happy because I come here.  So that’s why I go Australia”.

24:00

ERIC TLOZEK: And if he can’t get to Australia, Anayetullah wants to take a drastic option.

NISHA KARNA: “So you would rather be in Nauru than be in the US even though it was hard there?”

ANAYETULLAH FAZAL AHMAD: “Yeah”.

NISHA KARNA: “And what did you have like a job in Nauru?  Were you working, were you… what were you doing?”

ANAYETULLAH FAZAL AHMAD: “I don’t care about job!  I care about my life”.

24:06

Amin and Anayetullah in apartment

ERIC TLOZEK: Amin also regrets accepting US resettlement. His family is still on Nauru, but is no longer applying

24:31

Amin interview. Super:
Nur Amin Rahman

to come to the United States.

NUR AMIN RAHMAN: “Before they told me they were coming to the US, they are coming with me, they are going to stay in Chicago.  But now, because a lot of family, the Australia Government bring a lot of families from Nauru to Australia so my family changed their mind”.

24:39

Fleur with Mojubo

ERIC TLOZEK: They’re clearly bewildered by their new lives in America.

FLEUR WOOD: “Okay, do you have any medic-aide now?”

MOJUBO: “No”.

24:58

ERIC TLOZEK: Another flat mate, Mojubo is seriously ill, but doesn’t know how to get follow up medical treatment.

25:06

FLEUR WOOD: [on mobile phone] “Hello is that Laura?  I’m just here visiting a group of these Rohingya guys, one of them has got a medical issue.  He’s got a job, but his insurance doesn’t kick in for another couple of months.  Are you able to help out with a doctor at all?”

25:14

Anayetullah sitting on steps, Nur Amin sitting on bed

ERIC TLOZEK: These men waited five years to get out of detention and off Nauru.  Resettlement was supposed to bring freedom and a fresh start, but their new lives are bleak and lonely.

25:37

Nur Amin

NUR AMIN RAHMAN: “I wish to come to Australia for a better life, but I waste my time on the way in Indonesia or Malaysia, in Malaysia one year two months.  After that, in Indonesia nearly two years.  After Indonesia I have to wait another five years for useless… in Nauru [upset].

25:52

Fleur 100%

FLEUR WOOD: “I don’t think anybody can really realise the impact that this has had on these people and the impact that it’s going to have on their children and for generations to come that that trauma gets passed down.  And I also think the cost to Australia’s reputation, you know, Australia definitely is known now for these human rights violations.  I’ve had American people bring that up with me, like how can Australia treat people like this?  It really is a crime”.

26:23

Indian clothing store

Music

26:48

ERIC TLOZEK: Not everyone is finding it so desperate. 

26:56

Imran greets Tlozek

Now, living just around the corner is Imran.

27:00

Multicultural neighbourhood

Music

27:08

ERIC TLOZEK:  This is one of Chicago’s most multicultural neighbourhoods and while other Rohingya are overwhelmed by the experience, Imran embraces his new life.

27:17

Imran and Tlozek walk down street

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “You meet people from everywhere, basically.  Americans, Indians, Bengalis, Rohingyas.  You can see everyone”.

ERIC TLOZEK: “So is this different to what you expected?”

27:35

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “It’s totally different.  I didn’t expect anything like this.  It’s very diverse.  It’s beautiful.  You know, there are trees everywhere and I thought there’d be no trees and I found it really amazing”.

27:47

ERIC TLOZEK:  Imran has a job at a workshop, alongside several other former Manus detainees, but unlike Imran, they don’t want any contact with Australians or the media.

28:03

Imran 100%

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “It goes both ways, good and bad, but I am free.  That’s all that matters to me. I just wanted to be free and I just wanted to be respected as a human being, and people have been welcoming and I am loved.  So it’s home.  It definitely feels like a home”.

28:16

Chicago GVs

ERIC TLOZEK: In a country with 11 million undocumented migrants where the President wants to build a wall to keep others out, Australia’s so-called boat crisis, and  the government’s hard line response, have barely registered.  But Imran is finding many people are interested in his story.

28:50

University lecturer introduces Imran to class

UNIVERSITY LECTURER: [to class] “I’m really pleased to introduce you to a friend of ours who just arrived in May of 2018.  His name is Imran Mohammed.  He’s a Rohingya refugee.  Thank you Imran for coming to our class”.

29:14

Imran addresses class

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “I didn’t expect anything like that from Australia, at all because I have friends in Australia.  They were stateless, they are Rohingya and they went to Australia and they got a passport, they got a card.  They were telling me, ‘Okay, come to this country.  They will respect you as a human being’.  That’s why I wanted to go to Australia. 

29:31

Even when I was living in Papua New Guinea, one of the customs officers told me that ‘Don’t ever come back!’.  But when I came to this country, one of the customs officers told me, ‘Welcome to America!’  Thank you, that’s what I wanted to hear”.

29:53

Manus jungle/Imran o/lay. Dissolve to detainees' protest

ERIC TLOZEK:  But Imran is haunted by the memory of 600 men who are not so welcome here.  Neither prisoners nor really free, they remain trapped on a distant Pacific island.

30:10

Imran 100%

IMRAN MOHAMMED: “I am here, I am free, but I still have nightmares.  Sometimes I just can’t sleep.  I am wide awake and just wander around in my apartment.  I call my friends’ names.  They’re not here, they’re on Manus.  ‘Hey Jainal’ or ‘Hey Faizel!’ where are you?”

30:30

ERIC TLOZEK: [on a Chicago street] “I started covering Manus Island more than

30:59

Tlozek on street to camera

three years ago and when I first met these men, I wondered how their stories would end. I never thought it would be here on the other side of the world, in the suburbs of North America.  Some people might think this is a pretty good outcome to what was a diabolical political and social problem. And now they’re here, Australia might forget these guys, but they won’t forget what Australia did to them and they might not forgive either”.

31:05

Chicago GV/Nur Amin, Anayetullah/Amir

Music

31:32

Imran turns and looks to camera

AMIR TAGHINIA: “It can be lonely sometimes, super lonely.  It’s just I feel like I’m still there and I hear this daily stuff.  It’s not ending, it just keeps happening.  It’s getting worse and worse. 

31:48

Imran walks. Night

Something that I will always remember it, I will never be able to forget it,

31:58

Vancouver. Night. Imran in lift to viewing platform

stuff that happened to my friends, that they were killed in front of me. This shouldn’t have happened ever.  And I am sure there is going to be a day that in the future that Australia will feel sorry about what they’ve done”.

32:07

Music

32:25

Credits:

Reporter: Eric Tlozek

Producer: Mark Corcoran

Editor: Garth Thomas

Camera: Tom Hancock, Geoff Lye

Editor: Garth Thomas

Researchers: Bethanie Harriman, Richard Cassey

Executive Producer: Matthew Carney

abc.net.au/foreign

© ABC 2019

32:30

Outpoint:

32:52