The freedom to celebrate Christmas was just a wish for many of these refugees - until now.
Three hundred recently arrived refugees were invited to a special Christmas luncheon in Fairfield, in Western Sydney, to experience their first Australian Christmas.
The families from the Middle East and South Asia are celebrating their first holiday season down under. Some of the families from Iraq, Syria, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan arrived months ago. Others have been here for only days.
Mayyadh Chalka is a Christian Iraqi, who escaped from the city of Mosul with her family just before the so-called Islamic State took control.
She’s told SBS that she is finally free to openly celebrate the holidays.
"They (IS) forced us to adhere to their religion and we were forbidden from practising our own,” Ms Chalka described in her native Arabic.
“Things like how we dressed, and our freedoms as a whole."
It has been more than a year since the Federal Government announced a special intake of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
Iraqi refugee Mayyadh Chalka (centre) told SBS she was unable to celebrate Christmas due to IS control. (SBS News) Source: SBS
Since that pledge by then-Prime Minister Tony Abbot in November 2015, more than 8300 people have been resettled in the country. A further 2500 have been granted visas.
More than half of those that have arrived have settled in New South Wales (4600). The state is taking in the most refugees compared to the rest of the country.
Nahla Toma from Settlement Services International said that events like this Christmas luncheon are extremely significant to welcome the families and foster a sense of community.
"Today is a really big day for kids,” she explained.
“One of the families was saying ‘Oh thank you very much! Because when Christmas comes I can't even take my kids outside of my house because we're scared of the bomb. We have freedom here! We can celebrate our Christmas with freedom’.”
Kamel Rwel fled the fighting in Syria with his wife and three young children from the city of Hasakah.
He said the turmoil destroyed their lives.
"The war affected our jobs, we left our homes,” Mr Rwel said.
“Our families are without schooling now. We ran away from Syria to Lebanon, and then we came to Australia. We lost everything."
New South Wales has resettled 4600 Syrian and Iraqi refugees so far of the national 12,000 special intake. It will take in a total of 6000. (SBS News) Source: SBS
Ms Chalka said that whilst she is overjoyed to be in Australia, she worries about her family still stuck in besieged areas.
“For me, I have many relatives still in Iraq, and I worry," she said.
“Fortunately, yes, we came to a wonderful country like Australia, and we are happy here, but we worry about them and are scared for them because of the conditions they're in.”
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