Essam Hamoudi celebrates his new life.
Essam Hamoudi thought he was working towards the freedom of his country and a better life for his family when he offered his services to British, US and Australian forces in Iraq. The 28 year old worked as a translator for the forces for five years. But instead of gaining his freedom, he became a hunted man as militants bombarded him and his family with death threats.
He received not only hate mail, but letters that contained bullets and knives. His parents’ home was targeted, with death threats appearing on their main gates. He became a prisoner in his own home, afraid to go out without wearing a bullet-proof jacket.
When his fiancee’s family saw what was happening, they called off the engagement. He says: “They didn’t want their daughter engaged to a dead person. It was a certainty, just a matter of time.”
Because he had worked mainly with the British and Americans, it was to them he turned for help. He put in his visa applications for both countries, but after two years of stalling he began to lose hope, until he received an email from the Australian government inviting him to apply for residency there.
The Australians fast-tracked his visa application and granted him permanent residency status in June 2008. “It was amazing – almost too fast!” Essam says.
Essam is now starting to rebuild his life. With help from the government he has been able to do a security course and gets payouts of $835 a month. He shares rooms in Sydney with another Iraqi immigrant and volunteers as a security guard on the doors of the Queen Victoria shopping centre.
He hopes to be able to do a degree in civil engineering, once he has passed his English proficiency course. He then plans to work in Australia for 10 to 15 years, paying back the money the government has given to him.
Of living in Australia he says: “People in Australia treat you so nicely. I thought I might face discrimination because of my colour, or something. But here, everyone is equal, it makes me so happy!”
But Essam misses his parents and his brothers, who are still living in Iraq. “It’s a huge gap inside me which cannot be covered by the phone calls. Sometimes you just need to feel them physically.” His hope is to go back to Iraq one day, as a free man and help to rebuild his country.
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