Walk to support Tamil family

HUNDREDS of people participated in a walk on 20 June to raise awareness for the plight of refugees, led by one man carrying eighteen-and-a-half kilograms.

Tamil man Neil Para and his family fled their home country in 2012 and had their working visas revoked after four months and currently live with no work rights, Medicare or government support, surviving on love and care from the community.

Mr Para said he decided to walk to demonstrate the mental and physical burden having their visas revoked has had on their family, carrying one gram for every day they have been living in limbo.

“[The walk] marked 2691 days,” he said. “I put one gram per member in my family, we have five members in my family so that times by five is 13,455 grams.

“That’s 13.5 kilograms I was carrying to demonstrate our mental health, how we’re living every day.

“Plus, I put an extra five kilos to think about other people, other asylum seekers, other refugees and other people with mental health issues.”

The walk gathered a crowd of over 250 people, mainly Australian citizens, and Mr Para said his focus was educating the public on the toll of being a refugee.

“I request every Australian here in the country, please listen to us we are struggling, we escape the war, and we escaped the trauma and we ended up in a different trauma,” he said.

“We escaped the struggle, we ended up in a different struggle. If you all supported, we can come out from this struggle.”