MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – A last-minute visa hitch has forced a Melbourne Ethiopian refugee to wait one more day to be reunited with four of his children he hasn’t seen in a decade.
Jemal Ambo fled Ethiopia in 1998, leaving behind his six young children, then aged one, two, three, five, seven and nine.
Two years later his wife Rumana Kedir Osmar also fled, able only to take with her one of their sons, who was then four years old.
The mother and son joined Mr Ambo in a Kenyan refugee camp and in 2003 the three were granted a refugee visa to Australia.
Their five other children were left behind with relatives. However, the oldest son is now missing, his fate or whereabouts in the war-torn nation unknown.
This week, more than 10 years after he fled for his life, Mr Ambo was set to be re-united with his four other children at Melbourne Airport on Tuesday.
But a last-minute visa hitch in Ethiopia delayed the children’s departure by one day and they are now not due to arrive until Wednesday.
Mr Ambo has worked with Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre (SMRC) to bring his children, now aged 11, 13, 15 and 17, to Australia.
“There are no words to describe the desperation we felt at leaving our children to be cared for by relatives and there will be no words to describe the joy of having them finally with us,” Mr Ambo said in an SMRC statement.
“We didn’t know whether our children were alive, one child is still missing.
“But we hoped and prayed and now we are overjoyed at the thought that they will soon be with us.”
Two of the children are Mr Ambo’s with his previous wife, who died in jail while being detained.
Mr Ambo and his wife Rumana have had three daughters since arriving in Melbourne and have also succeeded in bringing Rumana’s 19-year-old daughter from another marriage to live with them as well.
SMRC case officer Lyda Dankha said it took two years to bring the couple’s other four children over, as it had taken much longer than expected to get them Ethiopian passports.
“It is a great story of family reunion, in spite of war and against all odds,” SMRC settlement and family services manager Sonia Vignjevic said.
She said the re-united family, which will then be nine children and two parents, will now need support for their next challenge, finding an affordable home big enough for them all in Melbourne’s inner-city Collingwood, where they now live.