Refugees - compassion needed

Nice hat Omar ... are you going to a fancy dinner?

A regret of 2008 was not seeing a better outcome for Omar.
Escaping from threats in Iraq from Saddam's people because he did not want to kill others ... Omar was tricked into giving his money to people smugglers, desperately trying to get to Australia. He spent two years in detention on Naru, using skills as a physiotherapist in the hospital and helping in the kitchen. Without shoes, he had a reaction to the phosphate, the most likely reason it appears for contracting cerebella ataxia, which apparently shrunk his brain and affected his coordination.
Re-located to Australia Omar sought medical help when he kept falling over. Nine months in PA Hospital, treating the syllabilia did not reverse the condition.
I happened to meet Omar at Dr Adel's surgery and have caught up with him occasionally.
If I distract him or make him laugh while eating his Big Mac he has a coughing fit that is painful to watch ... so I try to keep quiet.
Omar is thankful for the help he has been given. A housing agency found a beautiful ground level flat, he needs a walker to stay upright.
Omar is attending a New Year dinner with the homeless agency and reckons he will impress them with the fancy hat he will be wearing.
A resolution for Omar ... in my opinion ... would be to fast track Australian Citizenship and give him the opportunity to bring family members to Australia. They are medical and computer researchers, and, from the information available to me, are good people, helping and serving others with compassion. While there is not much I can do to help Omar, I wish him well and trust that in time he may be able to again use his physiotherapy skills to help others. If the Australian Government ever decides to detain people on Naru in the future, please provide shoes or thongs to avoid the possibility of others possibly having a chemical reaction to phosphate. The avoidable and unnecessary consequences cost more than a few hundred pairs of thongs.
Omar, I am glad you are not a lazy lump, so keep watching that park across the road and looking after it.