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KUALA LUMPUR: Lal Ceu and his family fled horrendous hardship in Burma -- a life of forced servitude and punishment.

He was seized by the Burmese military and forced to act as a porter.

From Chin state, in Burma's west, he fled to Malaysia with his wife and children five years ago. Yesterday, with his wife Hlawn Bor Tluai and baby daughter Sarah Sung Cer Chin, he arrived at the Australian high commission in Kuala Lumpur to pick up the visas that entitle them to settle in Australia. Besides Sarah, they have four older children, ranging up to 16.

"My hope for my children is they will have an education and a better life," he said, smiling.

Hlawn summed up her emotional state in two words. "I'm happy," she said, grinning.

They owned a patch of land in Burma, where they grew vegetables. But the army's demands had become unbearable, so Lal Ceu ran from the soldiers. If he hadn't left Burma, he said, he would have been arrested for this. "I could no longer bear the hardship, so I ran away."

Under the ill-fated asylum-seeker and refugee agreement with Malaysia, 4000 approved refugees from Malaysia are to be resettled in Australia over the next four years.

The agreement originally specified Malaysia would accept 800 asylum-seekers in return, but the High Court has struck down the plan.

However, advocates hope Australia will still accept the 4000 refugees, which will help to relieve the ocean of misery for those waiting in Malaysia.