UN General Assembly
2016

One such story is that of Aliir Aliir, who grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya after his family fled the bloody civil war in the Sudan. For Aliir, his family, and 150,000 other men, women and children, the Kakuma refugee camp was home. The camp provided the bare necessities of meals and shelter, but sports equipment was unimaginable. Aliir and his friends would improvise with a balloon wrapped in strips of old clothing to serve as a football. He was seven when he and his family came to Australia. Tall, fast and agile, Aliir was a natural for Australian Rules Football, and he has not looked back since he took up the game. Earlier this year, I was delighted when Aliir debuted for the Australian Football League (AFL) team I support, the Sydney Swans. Now 22, Aliir is one of the first Sudanese immigrants to play for the AFL and has become a role model in our multicultural nation, especially for young people in Sydney. There are thousands of migrant stories like Aliir’s — leaders of Government, of business, of science and of the arts.