Canberra man Rohan Samara, who came to Australia from Vietnam in a cardboard box as an infant in 1975 as part of Operation Babylift, says he's actually never thought of himself as a refugee.
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"Thank goodness I didn't have to come across now as opposed to 40-odd years ago because I think I'd probably be on Manus Island," he said.
He was asked by The Canberra Times to tell his story in what is Refugee Week in Australia and he's philosophical - and thankful - about his dramatic flight out of Vietnam in the dying days of the war, along with thousands of other infants from Saigon orphanages or of mix-race backgrounds believed to be in threat from the march of Communism. Reports of the exact number of children airlifted varies, with many going to the United States, and about 200 coming to Australia.
Refugee Week comes as Mr Samara continues to be thankful to his adoptive parents in Canberra, Mary and the late Percy Samara-Wickrama, but also still hopeful of finding his birth parents in Vietnam, with 3000 posters being distributed about him near his orphanage in Soc Trang to see if anyone remembers him.
Mr Samara, who was three-months-old and malnourished when he arrived in Australian in April, 1975, says the infants taken from Vietnam were embraced by Australians who wanted to help them but in more recent times there had been a "hatred" of refugees fostered in some quarters.
"I think people's perception of refugees has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. Problems with so many boats coming into Australia didn't help the image of refugees. There are dodgy ones and whatever," he said.
"I was fortunate at the time I came, we were a lot more accepting of refugees . But also, I think that it doesn't matter where you come from, you have to really assimilate into where you live.
"That's why I'm so involved in my voluntary work because I want to give back to the community which has given me this awesome life."
Mr Samara, a fire safety officer at the Canberra Hospital, has been a volunteer firefighter with the Rural Fire Service for 15 years and a long-time board member of the Burns Club.
He's lived most of his life in Canberra - ever since he was taken in by Mary and Percy. The couple already had two children but wanted to also adopt a child. It took them five years. Rohan came to them though an organisation called Friends for All Children, which coordinated the adoption of children from Operation Babylift. He spent a month in a hospital in Sydney before being taken to Canberra.
Mr Samara, 42, who attended Radford College, knew right from the start that he was adopted - and wanted.
"I used to tease my brother and sister that I was the chosen one because my parents had to wait five years for me but they only had to wait nine months for them," he said, with a laugh.
Finding his birth parents is a "needle in a haystack" venture but in his favour is their poor circumstances which meant they were unlikely to have moved far. While some characterise Operation Babylift as kidnapping rather than a rescue operation, Mr Samara said he had no doubt he had been handed a golden ticket in getting to Australia. He believes he was about a week old when his birth mother left him at the orphanage, for whatever reason unable to care for him.
The charity International Social Service Australia, which helps reconnect families, has helped him determine there is no record of his birth in the archives in Vietnam. His next hope is the posters, written in Vietnamese and giving his basic details and contact numbers. He has a simple reason for wanting to meet his birth parents.
"To say 'thank you' and give them a bit of peace of mind that the decision they made was a bloody awesome one," he said.
"You watch these TV shows [about adoption] and the parents are always wondering what happened to their child. I'd like them to go to their grave, at least, with the answer."
Mr Samara has visited his orphanage previously and is returning to Vietnam again next month in a continued search for answers. One breakthrough was DNA tests which enabled him to locate some distant cousins.
"It will be pretty cool to meet a blood relative for the very first time ever," he said.
He has found a special sense of belonging in Vietnam, which equals his love for Australia.
"About five years ago I went back to the orphanage for the first time and I met one of the nuns who'd been there when I was there," he said. "She told me, 'I held you to my breast when you were a baby and I hold you in my heart forever. You will always have a home here'. That was very emotional."