Bhutanese find home away from home in regional centre

Australia.
After years in limbo, thousands of Bhutanese refugees have found a home in regional Australia.

They were expelled from their home country and left to languish in refugee camps.

But after years in limbo, thousands of Bhutanese refugees have found a home in regional Australia.

The community is now being held up as a success story as Australia prepares to welcome 12,000 extra refugees from Syria.

Sylvia Varnham O'Regan reports.

Out in the fields of Albury, on the New South Wales border with Victoria, the only sounds are the kookaburras in the trees and the water coming from a hose.

Beneath the trees, two men are working on a vegetable garden, growing beans, okra, tomatoes and chillies.

The wide open landscape is a long way -- in all ways -- from the crowded refugee camps they grew up in.

"Our parents, they were farmers in Bhutan. They have got their own land, and they worked as farmers."

Members of an ethnic minority group, Rohit Khulal and his family were forced to flee their country more than 20 years ago.

He now runs this gardening project in Albury, home to almost 2,000 Bhutanese refugees.

"We may bring our parents here so that they can remember those days and forget the sorrow and sufferings that are filling their hearts."

The refugees were brought to the area as part of a global resettlement effort involving eight countries.

Since 2007, Australia has taken 5,500, New Zealand a thousand and the United States more than 84,000.

All of the refugees had been living in camps in Nepal, many for decades.

Albury City deputy mayor David Thurley says the resettlement was particularly significant for the parents.

"They missed out on 28 years of education. Now's the chance to do something, earn money, put (their) kids in schools and get their kids a future."

Ram Khanal became the dux of his high school two years after he arrived in Australia speaking hardly any English.

This year, he celebrated another major milestone.

"Becoming an Australian citizen was a very proud moment for myself and something that I will cherish for the rest of my life."

David Thurley says the resettlement program in Albury has been so successful that, now, more Bhutanese people are moving there from other, major cities.

"These people are seeing the opportunity to join in with a group of other Bhutanese people and be part of a big community again."

The Bhutanese population in Albury has helped the local economy, working in agriculture and other industries.

But Rohit Khulal acknowledges many older refugees still struggle with the language and social isolation.

"They can't talk to the neighbour, as well. And just they can say 'hi' but no (more) language, so they are isolated at home."

Rohit Khulal is hoping to get them involved in the gardening project, convinced it will remind them what it feels like to be home.
Source:www.sbs.com.au