From Bhutan to the Goulburn Murray
Teju Chouhan takes you on his journey as an asylum seeker from Bhutan to Albury Wodonga.
As a child, Teju Chouhan was forced to flee his home in Bhutan due to ethnic persecution.
For the next 18 years Teju and his family struggled to survive in a Nepalese refugee camp waiting to be granted asylum seeker status.
Teju says although the camp was a safe haven it was still a daily battle just to survive.
“Life is fairly basic in the camp, and if you are lucky you make it through the night, so if you could survive you should be more than happy. It’s about survival. Survival of the fittest.”
That atmosphere was exacerbated by a lack of food at times for refugees in the camp.
“There was a time when people were coming and there was not enough food, and people were dying because of diseases.
There was a time when I was a kid when I counted 40 dead bodies being cremated in a single day.”
Could you imagine growing up in such an environment?
Listen to the full interview to hear Teju describe the complete journey from Bhutan to Albury/Wodonga.
By Joseph Thomsen in ABC Local