I GREW up in Sydney's Sutherland Shire, home to beautiful beaches like Cronulla beach, made famous by the 2005 race riots.
I was there on the day of the riots.
At the start, it just felt like a big Australia Day gathering. But later, fuelled by alcohol, it started to get really violent.
People of Middle Eastern descent were being targeted and attacked, and it really disturbed me.
Earlier this year, I heard about a documentary series being made where you travel on the same journey as a refugee. I knew nothing about asylum seekers or refugees, only what I saw in the news headlines. At the time, I thought that people who arrived by boat needed to go straight back.
My view was that we first needed to look after our own. I then started to think about how little I actually knew about refugees and asylum seekers, so I decided to follow it up.
A few weeks later, I found myself standing outside a block of units in Liverpool, a suburb of Sydney. I had no wallet, no passport and no phone - these had been taken away from me by the program makers.
I had lost all my identity. And I had no idea what I would be in for.
I was greeted by four Iraqi men, who welcomed us in with open arms. We got to chatting about how they'd made the journey to Australia, and most had come by boat to Christmas Island. This was reality kicking in - here I was listening to their shocking accounts and how grateful they were to be here safe and free.
I still wasn't convinced, though. I mean, how bad could it be back in Iraq?
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we lived with Chin Burmese refugees. Refugees are not recognised in Malaysia, they are considered illegal immigrants.
We lived with 52 people in a flat no bigger than a small shop. I looked around and could see so many desperate and scared faces. Their bags were all packed and sitting in the corner of the room - they need to be ready to leave at the drop of a hat if there is an immigration raid by the Malaysian authorities. We then went on to Amman, Jordan, and we visited an Iraqi bomb victims' hospital. Oh my god, I felt sick. Kids in the hospital were missing arms, legs, even parts of their faces. Confronted by all this, I was struggling to hold back tears.
We were invited to a fun day held once a month by the hospital to help lift spirits. It was an incredible experience. I couldn't believe my eyes, the amount of hope in the faces of these people, disfigured and damaged as a result of the war that has ravaged their country.
After leaving Jordan, I couldn't see things getting any worse.
These refugees in Amman were living in appalling conditions, trying to survive with no food and no money.
Then we were en route to Baghdad.
Under the constant protection of the US military, we were taken on patrol through the Red Zone. We learned later that day a road we had been travelling on had been closed because an IED had exploded there, just 20 minutes after we had passed by.
This place was hell on earth. If me, or my family, were living in a situation like this I would do anything to get out and find a better and safer life. Even if that meant getting on a boat.
Now the journey is over, I keep thinking how lucky I am to live in Australia. I can't believe how selfish my views were at the start of all this.
I only saw what the media was broadcasting and didn't think about the problems in the world.
I also can't believe how unaware our government is of the problems that our world is facing. I think much more needs to be done to help those people not as lucky as the rest of us. At the end of the day, we are all human beings.
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