'When I left, my son was so small': Family reunited after almost 20 years

Rashid Shadab is Hazara and grew up in Ghazni, Afghanistan - but when the area was taken over by the Taliban in 2000, he made the difficult decision to flee.

"Before, we couldn't say we were Hazara Muslims because of the Taliban ... they sometimes know because of our face but we cannot say it because if they know, they shoot," he said.

"When the Taliban attacked Afghanistan, we had to pray in secret. It was a very hard life for our people."

After paying through the nose for fake identification documents and transport, Mr Shadab fled to Quetta in Pakistan with his family in 2001 - but that was little safety.

"In Pakistan, we were living illegally. We don't have any Pakistani documents ... Afghanistan was very close though. They started killing in Pakistan in 2004," he said.

In 2010, the situation wasn't improving and he decided it was time to move on from Pakistan for the sake of his family.

Mr Shadab began his journey to Australia by flying to Malaysia and travelling to Indonesia. From there, he got on a crammed boat to Australia - until the Australian Navy pulled up to escort them to Christmas Island.

"It was scary, when they saw us. We said we were asylum seekers, we had nothing," he said.

He described Christmas Island as very similar to jail, but not as much as the Curtin Detention Centre he was transferred to after a month.

Every day while he waited to be processed, he studied English to kill time and set himself up for his future life in Australia - which began when Mr Shadab and his fellow asylum seekers were given permanent visas in 2011.

After a brief period in Brisbane, he moved to Griffith and set to work on bringing his family over - not yet knowing quite how long that would take.

He eventually landed a job as a contractor at the Baiada processing plant, working 16 hours a day to make enough money for his rent here while still sending some back to support his family in Pakistan.

After the mandatory five-year period waiting on his permanent visa, Mr Shadab could finally apply for citizenship and a spouse visa in 2015. It was another eight years before both of the applications were processed.

Mr Shadab was so depressed and anxious about the wait and concerned for his family, he still needs a prescription to help him sleep.

"Every day, I was hearing the news from Pakistan. Five people killed there, three people killed in this place, 10 people killed in that place ... every day I was calling them, they were in such despair," he said.

While the story ends happily, his journey to being reunited with his family was longer than it should ever have been.

"When I left, my son was so small," he said.

By the time they finally arrived, his son was old enough to work the night shift at Baiada alongside Mr Shadab.

The Taliban attacked Afghanistan again in 2021 in an offensive that saw them claim victory and take over the country entirely.

Mr Shadab said he was alarmed to see the offensive that went on to topple the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and ended in a Taliban victory.

"When I arrived in Quetta with my family, I started working. I was thinking maybe one day, Afghanistan will be better and we will move back to our country ... but that was then."