By Luke Voogt
Iraqi refugee Milad Butrus says fireworks still scare his son – they remind him of when ISIS bombed their town.
Milad operated a small wi-fi business in Bakhdida, 30km south east of Mosul, before ISIS invaded on 6 August 2014.
He hoped a Geelong business course – newly tailored for refugees – could help him create a return to work.
“Here everything is different, people are friendly,” he said. “If you ask for something they try to help you.”
Milad’s family is part of the Syriac Christian ethnic minority. After taking Mosul ISIS gave the Christian inhabitants of Bakhdida three options: convert to Islam, pay money or leave, he said.
“If not, they kill you. We are just people without guns or anything. At about 6am they started (launching) rockets (at) the city.”
Explosions echoed throughout the town until 10am, with one rocket landing 500m from Milad’s house, killing three children.
At 3am on 7 August he began the journey to Jordan with his wife and two children, parents and four siblings still living in the town (out of seven).
He and his family subsisted there without the legal right to work for two years.
“The UN didn’t help, so I applied directly to the Australian embassy.”
On 28 June 2016 he migrated to Australia with his parents, family and younger brother (15).
Two of his sisters married in Kurdish controlled parts of Iraq, while another married in Jordan.
Milad hoped to one day earn enough to sponsor his three sisters in the Middle East to come to Australia.
He joined 20 refugees from Iran, Iraq, Liberia, South Sudan, Myanmar, India and Afghanistan this week participating in the KickStart Your Business course for the first time.
Geelong Chamber of Commerce and Greater Geelong teamed up to provide the course to celebrate National Refugee Week.
