By Tate Papworth
The remarkable journeys of two Brimbank men have become intertwined on the Metro Tunnel.
Fares Haddad and Meseret Bogale are from refugee/asylum seeker backgrounds and have overcome tremendous adversity after being forced to flee their homelands and forge new lives in a foreign land.
Now they’re plying their engineering trades on the biggest public transport project in Victorian history.
Mr Bogale arrived in Australia in July, 2013 after fleeing his homeland of Ethiopia.
His family fled to Australia earlier, but Mr Bogale stayed behind to finish schooling.
“I was a high school student and finished year 12 there,” he said.
“My family just left me and moved to Australia in 2010. I followed them later.
“I spent three years in a Sudan refugee camp. The refugee camp is hard to explain … You just focus on getting a visa to get you out of the situation – you don’t focus on things like eating and clothes.”
These days Mr Bogale is an undergraduate engineer on the Metro Tunnel.
He came to the project via the GROW program, which seeks to introduce people from marginalised or disadvantaged backgrounds to training and employment opportunities in the transport and construction industries.
He said it’s been a fantastic journey.
“People with a background like me, when we get to industry, can be scared,” he said.
“There’s a lot of barriers – language, culture, there’s a lot of barriers. But … the Australian workers have been nothing but nice, loving and caring.”
Mr Haddad has had a similar experience – fleeing Syria when war engulfed the nation.
“I had my own small company dealing with mechanical spare parts,” he said. “When the war started I moved to cities and was eventually forced to flee to Lebanon – I lost everything.”
Mr Haddad, his wife and two young children were granted a humanitarian visa and came to Australia.
“I couldn’t speak English, I knew nobody over here and I didn’t know how the workforce operated,” he said. “I did some courses and learnt the language and how the work environment functions here.”
His hard work paid off.
Mr Haddad is a fuel and rental plant engineer for the tunnel project, responsible for inspecting machinery and managing fuel deliveries.
“I love my job – there’s so many things going on each day and I’m thankful for the opportunity,” he said.
