Freedom Is Beautiful

I'm gonna tell you some story.

When I was on Manus Island, the people

call me 'Lion' Farhad.

And I don't know why they call me

maybe I was tough and really strong.

from Jakarta to Christmas Island

We were like 65 people

with families, some kids.

Everyone is sleeping, someone vomiting

in the edge of the

fisher boat.

Big wave came

half of my body was under the ocean.

I could see there is a rope.

And I hold it.

I grabbed it and no one knew.

I survived from that time

and I came back, said wow

So I will be alive.

There was something inside

and I believe that one day I will be free.

I didn't know they're gonna exile us

to Manus and Nauru for six years.

I was there for six years.

And then they transferred me

to Australia for medical help.

Still I am suffering from the pain and what happened to me

but I am a still strong, I am still the lion.

My life was the size of a room

for years and years.

I think it was a miracle

that I survived.

All those years that I was in detention

was like a nightmare.

Torture after torture.

I didn't want to get angry.

I wanted to be kind to myself.

I decided to keep my smile.

And I wanted to be a person

for people who don't have voice.

I learned to be patient.

I learned to become friends with music,

with painting.

When I got my freedom

I felt I have a new sense.

I felt that I have a pair of wings

and I'm gonna fly.

We will decide

who comes to this country and the circumstances

in which they come.

After rescuing more than 400 muslim asylum seekers,

no one could have predicted the

dramatic sea change ahead.

From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in

Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in

Australia as refugees.

The boats, the boats

will be stopped.

You have been brought to this place here because you

have sought to illegally enter Australia, by boat.

Persons transferred to regional processing centers

will not be settled in this country and the

position of this government will not change.

Are you saying that unaccompanied minors would be better off

in detention?

The Australian government forbids journalists

from filming or interviewing detainees at its camps.

This policy has been incredibly dehumanising.

It's like this is a horrible human

experiment that has no end.

The Guardian newspaper has been leaked more than 2,000

incident reports from Australia's Nauru detention camp.

The sexual assault of young children, the physical assault

of young children, the deleterious impact

of detention on children,

suicide attempts by children, self-harm attempts

and we've seen that continue.

We have been denied

our basic needs, water and food and electricity.

That does not mean that we are going to surrender.

We have been in this place for four and a half years

and we have not committed in any crime.

We are asking the international community

to rescue us from this disaster.

We have been struggling with

starvation.

I would like to say

and send this clear message to the government.

We only want freedom in

a safe country and it is a clear message.

What do we want?!

Freedom!

Nobody should ever doubt the resolve of

this government to keep our borders secure.

They won't be

you know, numerate or literate

in their own language, let alone English.

Until now there has been a long lengthy delay,

there has been almost obsessive legal intervention

to try and stop people who are ill from

being transferred over to Australia

for the care that they need.

This is going to be able

to get spivs and rapists

and murderers onto our shores.

The bill says serious crimes

would preclude that, that's wrong what you said,

you admit that?

What Labor says and what Labor...

What the bill says. I'm sorry, you've got to be factual

when you make the case.

I will do everything in my power to

ensure that these suggested changes that

would undermine our border protection laws never see

the light of day.

You're suggesting that they're almost, all of them are ill.

The bottom line is Barry, we're not prepared to weaken

border protection like Labor is

That's not the point, can you explain to me

how it is, that it's got to the point where almost all of

them are ill?

The point is Barry, we've stopped the boats.

Because of temporary protection visas

That's not an answer to that question

because of... offshore...

because of boat turn backs...

Hello Craig, I'm walking in the corridor

in the Park prison.

It's a very proud moment of my life

today, I'm gonna share with you.

I'm gonna be free very soon

I'm very excited and I just

wanted to tell you that, thank you very much for

all your amazing support

and thanks, all of you people.

I cannot believe it

I cannot.. yeah

this morning I call you, I'm going to be free.

Finally.

My name is Farhad Bandesh

I'm a Kurdish refugee.

Seven and half years of my life

I lost it for no reason.

Fortunately with lots of

support from Australian people,

I got my freedom on my birthday.

My name is Mostafa Azimitabar.

I am 34 years old. I am a Kurdish refugee

I was imprisoned,

more than 2,700 days by the Australian government.

This is the second week in my life that

I feel freedom.

I haven't had freedom before in my life.

So happy to see you out and free

and with trees and grass and everything

and Farhad as well,

you look so well.

So that was the last song that you released.

What was the name of it?

How amazing...

I remember the first time I saw Moz was in

Foxtrot, but

we didn't know each other and I didn't

try to connect it to him. But

when I saw him playing guitar

and

thought wow, this guy is a musician.

We become friends in Oscar compound.

Yeah, I remember the first time when I met Farhad,

and he was drawing something and I really

liked his painting

and I started talking.

And we became friends.

I grew up in war.

Even the first day when I was born

the hail of bombs bombarded my city.

It was the melody of my childhood.

When I was child, we had really

bad time because

that time I was born in war

I grow up with the bombs, the sounds of the

screaming of the people.

We just run from the war.

We went to the mountains, we went to the forest.

We were in tents,

like thousand people

they left from the city to get safety.

We spend lots of time without water, without bread or food,

and I remember

when the wind trembled the

tree, oak tree, the sounds of dry oak

from last year, that was kind of music.

I saw the government

are using a crane for hanging

up people.

They were not moving

and I thought that they are dolls,

and I asked

the people who were around me and they said

that they are human beings and I said,