Destination Australia - A Family Divided

Olivia is also leader of the local Sierra Leonean community inLaunceston, Tasmania, she migrated to Tasmania 3 1/2 years ago underthe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) program,after spending several years in a refugee camp in Ghana.

Oliviawas a broadcast journalist in Sierra Leone before and during the civilwar. These days Olivia works as an aged care worker at The GlenaraLakes Aged Care facility in Launceston. Three of her brothers arestill humanitarian refugees in Ghana and Guinea, having been rejectedby Australian immigration at the time the others came.

Duringthe war, Olivia’s involvement with the media cost her family dearly –her baby daughter and grandmother were murdered; her husband, a brotherand a sister disappeared and have never been found; her mother wasbrutally beaten and Olivia herself was tortured for 11 months as apolitical prisoner before being sentenced to death. And she has to livewith the knowledge that her family is fractured with her threebrothers’ situation still unresolved – they are trapped as refugeesover there with no citizens rights, unable to return to Sierra Leoneand unable to find residency anywhere else in the world.

Whenthe opportunity arises for Olivia to accompany a container load of muchneeded supplies to her old refugee camp in Ghana, she jumps at theopportunity. Not only will she be able to help out the people at thecamp, she will also be able to see two of her brothers, Aziz and Bakarragain. And hopefully, she’ll be able to help them come to Australia.

Alocal Catholic primary school, Larmenier, gets behind the project andhelps with the fundraising. By holding a Cow Pattie Jamboree, Oliviaand the team raise just enough money to send the container. They have abig send off on the day it departs. Olivia suddenly realises she isabout to go back to a place she fought so hard to leave. She worriesabout how she will be received.

Olivia flies to Ghana. Ghanaianofficials detain her for two hours at the airport in Accra. They grillher about why she has come back to Africa. Her brothers wait nervouslyfor her outside. Unsettled, she finally emerges from the building andhas an emotional reunion with her brothers, Aziz and Bakarr. But shehas only been granted a ten-day visa.

After catching up for afew hours, Olivia and her brothers set off on a quest to find out whatcan be done to get the remainder of their family to Australia.Meanwhile, Olivia soon discovers that the container has not clearedcustoms and is still on the dock. For the next nine days, Oliviatackles the nightmarish bureaucracies in Ghana determined to get thecontainer off the dock and transported the 350kms to the Krisan RefugeeCamp, while she reconnects with her brothers and tries to help themplan for their future.  At the eleventh hour, the container is clearedand transported to the camp and they begin to empty the container.Unfortunately, time runs out and Olivia must return to the city tocatch her plane back to Australia. In the chaos of the moment, sheleaves the camp unable to say good-bye to Aziz and Bakarr.

Backin Tasmania, Olivia reflects on the experience. She is even moredetermined to help her brothers and reconfirms that Australia isdefinitely her home.