Australia’s newest citizens celebrate escape from Afghanistan as councils prepare for Australia Day ceremonies

He fled Afghanistan in 2013 in search of a better life for his family – now Noor Wali Jan Babaker Khail and his children are celebrating life in Adelaide as new citizens.

He boarded a people smuggler’s boat and travelled to Indonesia in the middle of the night, trudged through a jungle and spent a year in a detention centre.

Now, nine years after leaving his home in Afghanistan in search of a better future for his family, Noor Wali Jan Babaker Khail says his “dream” is coming true.

The 36-year-old and five of his children will become Australian citizens at a Charles Sturt Council ceremony on Wednesday. They are among 1302 people who will become citizens at South Australian ceremonies this week. Mr Babaker Khail left Afghanistan alone in 2013, travelling to Malaysia, where he boarded a boat bound for Indonesia, hoping his family would follow him to a safe new home.

The eight-hour hour boat journey to Indonesia was scary, he said, as the group travelled through the night, and the vessel was “jumping 4-5m on the waves”.

“We just wanted to save our lives,” Mr Babaker Khail said. He says when they arrived on shore in Indonesia, the passengers were told to walk through a jungle for about four or five hours until they met a bus driver.

They were taken to a house and left there for two or three nights with no food.

Noor Wali Jan Babaker Khail, who migrated to Australia from Afghanistan, and his children Mashita, 13, Nabeela, 11, Inamullah, 9, Omer Ullah, 8, Zainab, 12 months and Jaheedullah, 15, will become Australian citizens. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Eventually, they were driven towards Jakarta and met on the way by immigration officials, which led to him being sent to an immigration detention centre.

“It was a very hard life,” Mr Babaker Khail says of his time at the centre. “You can’t do anything much, you just need to wait. I was watching the people outside moving playing, but we were stuck in just one building.”

Mr Babaker Khail was released in 2014, eventually being granted a visa to move to Australia as a refugee and arriving in 2016.

Taliban fighters patrol along a street during a demonstration by people to condemn the recent protest by the Afghan women's rights activists, in Kabul on January 21, 2022. Picture: Mohd RASFAN/AFP

Three years later, his wife Bibishaheeda arrived in Adelaide with their children Jaheedullah, now 15, Mashita, 13, Nabeela, 11, Inamullah, 10, and Omer Ullah, 8, and they have since had another girl, Zainab, now 1.

Mr Babaker Khail still fears for the safety of others in Afghanistan, including his brother and mother.

“Last year they had a new government and people had jobs and went to school,” he says of the time before the Taliban’s 2021 takeover.

“Now, everything has stopped. In Afghanistan, 99 per cent of people are not safe.” Mr Babaker Khail and his five oldest children will become citizens on Wednesday. “I’m very excited – I cannot wait. It’s like the best country in the world.”