Behrouz Boochani in Australia: ‘Some of those politicians who barred me are gone. But I am here’

Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish writer and refugee is in Australia to promote his latest book Freedom, Only Freedom, a collection of work he wrote while in detention, alongside essays from experts on migration, refugee rights, politics and literature.

Boochani was locked up in offshore detention for six years, during which he wrote and published the award-winning No Friend But the Mountains.

He eventually settled in New Zealand.

Boochani fled ethnic persecution in Iran in 2013, attempting to arrive in Australia via boat from Indonesia, before being detained in the Manus Island detention centre.

There Boochani witnessed the “brutal side” of Australia and its politics, and penned his first book via compiled WhatsApp messages.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/08/behrouz-boochani-in-australia-some-of-those-politicians-who-barred-me-are-gone-but-i-am-here