"They know you ain't coming back": Comedian Umit Bali's life growing up as an illegal immigrant in Australia

Umit Bali is not your average stand-up comedian.

He tours the country and he has been doing it for about a decade, but for 15 years Umit lived with a secret: he was an illegal immigrant.

Constantly lying to even relatives about where he lived and dodging immigration all in fear of being deported, Umit and his family were desperate to have a life in Australia.

He moved here from Fiji when he was 13-years old with his two parents who were keen to escape a country with "a lot of coups, coups everywhere".

"We came to the country legally," he says, before adding: "On a tourist visa."

"A lot of my relatives had marriages of convenience where, you know, you marry an Aussie for a certain amount of money.

"Then you get your visa and you marry your spouse again and bring them over.
Umit
Source: The Feed
"You can get like a tourist visa in Fiji but only for like half the family 'cos they know you ain't coming back. You only have to leave, like, one kid behind."

Umit says he's fortunate he's an only child otherwise he would have been that kid.

"It worked out okay or ... I wouldn't be here, I would definitely be left behind," he laughs.

"I wasn't the smart one, I like shiny things."

His school life was one full of anxiety, never knowing if someone who they invited over to the house would end up reporting them to the immigration department for the $2000 reward offered at the time.

Because of this, he says, friendships were hard to maintain and he ended up moving house nine times in ten years.

"The closest call with immigration was when they came to our house to detain my mum, my dad and my sister," he recalls.
"The closest call with immigration was when they came to our house to detain my mum, my dad and my sister"
"My parents were hiding with me, I had my citizenship, I had my permanent residency, I was hiding my parents.

"My dad kept stressing like 'oh you know if you detain us, we need to get a passport for my sister'. 'Cos my sister she was born here, she didn't have a passport for Fiji."

"My dad was like 'that's fine, we'll leave, we'll go, but you need to give us some time so we can get a passport for my sister'.

"They gave us a visa till the third of March and on the first of March my sister turned 10. As soon as she turned 10, she automatically became an Australian citizen.

"And we lodged an application for my parents to stay in Australian so yeah ... that's the happy ending."
Umit 2
Source: The Feed
For many of the family's friends and relatives who had been keen to live and work in Australia, Umit says bribes were involved to make sure that could happen.

For his family, it was a markedly different situation.

"My dad was a cab driver he picked up this guy who had been bashed and he was taking him to hospital, but he was working in immigration.

"He could get my dad a visa for the whole family, like there wasn't even a bride involved.

"Well, that's a lie - my dad had to make him duck curry."

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By Marc Fennell
Source: The Feed

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