"When I was twelve my father said, I have been accepted to go to Australia,” Bawa Cin Zah told SBS World News.
"I didn't know what that meant, I didn't know that we were refugees."
A member of the Australian Chin community, she fled Myanmar (also known as Burma) via Malaysia with her entire family, but many other families fractured.
"I am very fortunate that I came with both my parents and my two sisters, however the same cannot be said for a lot of other Chin families.”
The Chin community is the fastest growing ethnic group in Australia, growing four times its size between 2011 and 2016, according to Census data.
Bawa Cin Zah, a member of the Australian Chin community. Source: SBS World News
Their rise has been so swift that ten years ago, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) didn’t even report how many Chins were in the country.
Why have Chin people left their homes in Myanmar?
Myanmar, nestled between Thailand and Bangladesh in south-east Asia, was under direct or indirect control of the military between the 1960s and 2015. During this time ethnic and religious minorities suffered persecution.
Around 1.5 million Chins live in the mountainous region bordering Bangladesh, Indian and Myanmar, mostly in the area in Myanmar recognised as Chin State.
There are at least six primary Chin tribal groups, and 63 smaller sub-tribes, many of which speak separate dialects.
Most Chins are Christian, following the activity of mostly Baptist missionaries in the area during the nineteenth century, which contrasts with the rest of the country which is mostly Buddhist.
A map of the traditional territory of the ethnic Chin tribes. Source: Human Rights Watch
A from a group of researchers linked to public health and human rights bodies in the US recorded the persecution the Chin people have suffered.
They recorded reports of 1570 separate incidents of forced labour in the preceding 12 months from around 700 households they visited in Chin State - around two-thirds of which were imposed by the Burmese military. Ninety-two per cent of households reported at least one episode.
Almost 3000 incidents of abuse were reported, including killing, torture, rape and imprisonment.
The remote area also lacks infrastructure, which has led to poor health outcomes.
A from Swedish health researchers found many more children suffered from stunting, wasting and thinness than would be expected by World Health Organisation benchmarks.
Approximately nine out of 10 of the 10,000 migrants from Myanmar who arrived in Australia between 2011 and 2016 were granted humanitarian visas. Many of these were Chin refugees.
How many Chins are in Australia?
Simon Sang Hre is a Chin refugee living in Melbourne who was forced to work for the military as a teenager.
"I still remember that I was forced to build the military camp, I was only young, I can't deny it. If I deny I would be killed, I would be beaten to death,” he said.
"If I [didn’t] walk away from the country, there is no more future for me.”
He is one of approximately 8000 people who declared they had Chin ancestry in last year’s Census. The community has grown strongly since 2011, when under 2000 were recorded.
Simon Sang Hre experienced forced labour in Myanmar before coming to Australia. Source: SBS World News
The community is concentrated in only a handful of suburbs in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne, according to the .
Darren Cronshaw, Head of Research and Professor of Missional Leadership at the Australian College of Ministries, has met many Chins in the Baptist church network and said he was "inspired by their tenacity."
The Census Explorer shows where the Chins live in Adelaide. Source: SBS World News
“Almost all have got gruelling stories of coming to Australia, trekking across the hills in Malaysia and Thailand, spending years in refugee camps,” he said.
“They have a real desire to engage with Australian society, learn English and do what they can to support their adopted country.”
What is the outlook for the Chins now?
Despite the victory of Aung San Suu Kyi at the first openly contested election in 25 years held in 2015, Myanmar remains unstable.
Protests are common and clashes between security forces and local insurgents have continued.
Dr Nicholas Farrelly from the Australian National University’s Myanmar Research Centre , alongside colleague Kyaw Sein, that after decades of direct military rule, the new government’s "first few months, or even the next few years of its mandate, do not provide enough time to ‘fix' all of Myanmar’s multifaceted problems".
But the outlook for the Chin people has improved.
DFAT travel advisory for Myanmar, July 2017. Source: DFAT
State Counsellor Suu Kyi visited Chin State several times in the years leading up to the election and second Vice-President, Henry Van Thio, is an ethnic Chin.
On a visit to Chin State in February, he presented the equivalent of approximately AU$10,000 in local currency for local education and health programs, and reaffirmed his government’s intention to build a federal democratic nation.
The Australian Chin Community is expecting the influx of refugees to slow in coming years due to improved conditions at home.
The second Vic-President of Myanmar, Henry Van Thio, visits Chin State in February 2017. Source: Myanmar President Office
Dr Farrelly said this has already happened and that Chins, even those that have stayed in Myanmar, had been successful in “unprecedented’ wealth creation in recent years.
"Chin State is still the poorest part of Myanmar, and that means many problems are impossible to resolve, especially in remote parts of the state. But many Chin leave those problems behind and try their luck elsewhere,” he said.
“Big numbers are in government service, in business and, of course, outside the country. Some still face discrimination or persecution but their situation, on those points, is still much better than plenty of other groups, especially Muslim minorities."
