Ramzi Naeem, back, third from left, and his extended clan. Picture: Kym Smith
ishtartv.com - theaustralian.com.au
Angela Shanahan,
December 17, 2016
Peace
and joy at Christmas: those greeting-card words will have true meaning this
year for four generations of the Naeem family, Iraqi Assyrian Christians who
will celebrate together in Canberra after fleeing first Islamic State in
Baghdad and then exile in Beirut.
The
nine members of the family, including Ramzi Naeem’s aged parents, his children,
son-in-law and baby Alan have benefited three times over from a series of
extraordinary connections with Australia and New Zealand stretching back almost
a century to World War I.
Grandfather
Jameel, 77, well remembers when the family could mark Christmas at their home
in Iraq.
Four-year-old
Alan’s only memories are of the past 2½ years spent in exile in Lebanon. It will
be their first Christmas complete as a family for 20 years.
The
extended family migrated to Canberra earlier this month after fleeing an
Islamic State advance on their predominantly Christian neighbourhood in Baghdad
in 2014 and then spending more than two years in Beirut.
This
week, visiting Parliament House as part of a difficult readjustment to a new
peaceful life, Ramzi said: “I can’t believe you can just walk in.”
The
family left almost everything they had behind, including their thriving
jewellery business, when they fled Baghdad. They were robbed of the little they
had, including some money for “bribes”, while attempting to move to safer
areas.
The
Naeems were heavily dependent on support from Ramzi’s sister, Wesal, who had
come to Australia 19 years ago after fleeing Saddam’s regime. Wesal was already
settled in Australia, living in Canberra.
While
the Naeems were waiting with groups of Christian refugees in Lebanon, the
family connection with Australia helped it qualify for the Australian
government’s special 12,000-refugee intake for persecuted people fleeing Iraq
and Syria.
Although
their daily survival in Lebanon depended on the help of relatives in Australia,
other expenses, including their airfares to Beirut and then later to Australia,
were covered by two Christian aid associations: Australia’s Christian Faith and
Freedom and the American Nazareth Association.
However,
the final assistance came largely from an almost-century old legacy: funds
left in remembrance of a soldier killed while helping 60,000 Assyrian Christian
refugees from the Ottoman Turks in 1918.
Some
of their expenses, including their exit visas, were partly financed by a
bequest to CFF from the family of New Zealander Captain Robert Kenneth Nicol MC
of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Captain
Nicol was second-in-command under Australian Captain Stanley Savige MC AIF of a
10-man detachment of Dunster Force, a combined Australian and New Zealand force
that assisted the British in the rescue of Assyrian refugees in 1918. Captain
Nicol was killed in action, and is officially recognised by Assyrian
Christians as a martyr.
The
extended Australian family of Captain Nicol wanted the bequest to be used
specifically for ongoing aid to Christians in the Middle East.
A
spokesman for CFF told The Weekend Australian: “Using the bequest to rescue
Assyrians — once more endangered because of their Christian faith, their
ethnicity and 7000-year connection with their ancestral land in Mesopotamia of
which they have now been dispossessed — seemed an appropriate way of honouring
the courage of Captain Nicol, and the dedication of his Australian family to
that project.”
Part
of the family pull to Australia was to reunite with sister Wesal, who fled Iraq
for Australia after her first husband was killed by Saddam’s regime.
The
recent arrivals are now living with the help of welfare payments that were
approved only a few days ago.
They
are based in government-supported accommodation for at least a month, and are
looking for permanent alternative accommodation.
However,
they do intend to support themselves as soon as they can. Ramzi wants to set
himself up in business, with the help of family members. He is a jeweller and
so is his son. At the end of March in Sydney, at the Assyrian new year, they
will have a stall selling traditional jewellery.
Of
the 12,000 special refugee intake the Australian government pledged to take,
10,092 visas have now been granted and 8317 people have arrived in Australia.
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