By Chris Van Ingen
Almost a week ago I went to the funeral of Leo an Asylum
seeker who was that afraid of being sent back to Sri Lanka he felt he had no
other option than end his life.
I had the blessing and good luck to spend Leo’s last Christmas
with him, in that time I learned that he was quite, gentle, kind and generous a
man.
At the funeral I heard a story that illustrated Leo
perfectly; Leo was so generous his boss had to stop him from donating his entire
wage to charity.
I know our government has to have policies and procedures to
process refugees and asylum seekers but
surely Australia wants more people like Leo, not less.
Leo was Tamil and catholic two things that put a target on
his back and made him afraid of being tortured if he was forced to go back to
Sri Lanka.
On top of this Leo suffered from serve mental illness, no
matter what culture you are from Australia is not very excepting of those that
have mental illness.
Despite all his hardships he still believed in putting others
before himself a quality that we all should try and carry with us.
We are all part of one universe, one song we need to
recognise our common humanity and stop fearing what is different.
I again urge our government to replace fear with love and
while being thorough is necessary we must stop adding to the fear that refugees
and asylum seekers have had in their life.
I only knew Leo for a short time but his quiet dignity, compassion
and kindness will always make me grateful for that one Christmas.
“Remember to keep the wheels of life turning in your
direction”