Christchurch earthquake hits refugees hard

MICHAEL FOX

Kazimiya Shahali fled prison and persecution to start a new life and settled in a disaster zone. Now she has to move again.

The Kurdish refugee fled Iran as a 22-year-old for Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

There she spent five years in prison, where she was fed a piece of bread every three days and punished for speaking her own language, and three in the al-Tash refugee camp.

She has not seen her extended family in more than 18 years.

In 2001 she came to New Zealand as a refugee, settling in Christchurch, a place she made her home and says made her happy.

Earthquakes have now forced her, husband Abdulnoor Qadami and children Fatima, 11, Zeeba, 9, Aram, 5, and Sara, 14 months, to leave for Auckland.

Local refugee advocates say refugees, who fled religious and cultural persecution in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Somali, Eritrea and Ethiopia are leaving Christchurch in droves as the devastation brings unwelcome feelings of past trauma back to the surface.

''When I came out from prison I said now we're getting together in life,'' Kazimiya said.

''[I said] We now have a good life and free... now everything's more harder.

''[Back home] Any time I can be killed by the Iran Government but this is hard."

Her children were ''very afraid'' and Sara wasn't sleeping. They were holding a garage sale in a bid to sell all their possessions, though no one was buying.

''I am getting very scared but I am getting very sad because it killed a lot of people.''

After the first quake, the family of six had slept outside in their garden shed, too scared to go back into the house. When Kazimiya saw worms burrowing up where the children slept she decided they had to go back inside.

Kaziyama said they liked Christchurch and had a strong Kurdish community of around 170 people here, though all but four families were leaving.

She expected most of those staying to follow also.''It's a very hard life for me.''

New Zealand National Refugee Network secretary Adam Awad said fleeing families ''have enough tragedy in their lives. They do not need more''.

''They need support to find somewhere safe.''

Awad said they knew the quake was hard on all those in Christchurch, especially those who had lost loved ones.

''We know very well what this is like. When we see the earthquake pictures, we tell others that this is what happened to us. We are here because of terrible situations where our loved ones were killed,'' he said.

This quake had brought back memories of the trauma refugees had suffered before they fled, he said.

''That's why so many of our Christchurch families want to leave Christchurch.''

Somali refugee Ahmed Tani, driving his taxi along Moorhouse Ave when the first quake struck, said he had no idea what was happening, having never experienced an earthquake before.

He had visited around 350 homes to check on refugee families, finding many of their community in terror.

One screamed: ''I am going to die here. I came here to be safe. Now I am going to die here,'' he said.

The refugee and Muslim communities have been mucking in with the clean up, yesterday digging up silt on Weston Rd.

Local Imam Hashim El Zeiny said they wanted to show the community they were part of it.

''I hope that they feel we are part of them.''

- © Fairfax NZ News