'I'm not an Australian citizen and never will be': Teenager stuck in limbo | A Current Affair

First, my name is Eileen and I desperately need someone to tell my story.That's how this inspiring 17 -year -old opened her email to us.I grew up eating Vegemite.I sound like everyone else at school.Most people who meet me assume I'm Australian.But Eileen's carrying a weight most adults would struggle with.

She's stuck in limbo.This is her plea.

I am just as Australian as every person I see that walks past me on the street.I love this country.I love everything about it.I think I sound Aussie.I do Aussie things.Every experience I've had that is significant or that I remember or that I hold dear to me, it's here and it is Australian.

And I am Australian.I don't know anything else.Your life is here, but there's just a sense you don't quite belong.By law, I'm not an Australian citizen and never will be.

Eileen is 17.She lives in Sydney's West, where she has a great group of mates, all in their final year of high school.

She's really funny, I'll give her that.She's very adventurous.

How do you feel about your friends all talking about you in front of you?

It's given me a bit of an ego boost to be fair.Eileen throws everything she has at life, because this is her second chance.I love music, I go to the beach a lot, I play sports with my mates.And here's what she's too modest to say.

You're 17, you volunteer at Taronga Zoo with their youth program, you teach Ukrainian kids English online, you work part -time, you've got a leadership role at your school, you play rep basketball.These are all the things you do.Yeah.It sounds so normal.Yeah.Except for one fact.

If you come by boat, you'll never permanently live in Australia.

Arlene's parents didn't know that when they fled Iran in 2013 with their then three -year -old daughter.Forced to flee following threats to their lives, they boarded a boat bound for Australia.

There's this illusion in people's minds that there is, like, a choice.But the fact is, there isn't.It's either leave now or die.So you have no memory of that trip?No.I remember things that might not be true.

I remember wood and I remember, like, really big waves.I just get bits and pieces of a puzzle that I will never get to complete.

Nearly 17 ,000 people had made that perilous journey in the months before Eileen and her family.Some died trying.The Rudd government wanted to stop people smugglers.The new law?If you come by boat and you're processed offshore, you can never permanently call Australia home.Eileen arrived four days too late.

It's a law that was passed in a time where people just really wanted a change and I can understand that.You get sent to Nauru, I mean you were so young.What do you remember of your time on the island?One of my main memories was people would have protests naturally and they would sew their lips shut with like sewing needle and I was really sad and I didn't know how to describe that orhow it actually, or what it was I guess.I remember tents, I remember white tents and I remember being hungry and I remember my mum and how she was thinner than I had ever seen her before.

The scorching island of Nauru was her home for a whole year, until her mother became sick, needing life -saving surgery.Only possible in Australia.

She said to me that she thinks that God gave her that disease to save us.She describes it as some kind of gift, and I'm like, it makes me sad to hear anyone at all describe almost dying as a gift.

That gift allowed them to stay in Australia, but it came with a cruel twist.These are photos of you and your mum and dad.on Nauru at Christmas.

Yeah, and I'm holding those toys, but we actually weren't allowed to keep them.And then you sort of move on to this life in Australia where, oh, you're a dancer.

Yeah, I'm right there.Eileen started school in Australia, living in community detention for four years.

She is officially recognised as a refugee.That's like basically the declaration that we are refugees.

She was placed on a bridging visa when she was eight, which allows her to stay in Australia basically as a guest.It means every six months she must reapply to stay here.Always fearful the answer will be no.Do you ever think about that, that you could be sent back to Iran one day?

I can't even fathom it.It's just not something that my brain can handle because I don't know anything but Australia.Every six months it turns out that we can stay but only for another six months.Arlene studies hard, but because of the visa she's on...high school's as far as she's allowed to go.I, unlike my friends and everyone else I know, don't get to pursue a further education and don't get to pursue my passions.

And what are those passions?What do you want to do when you leave school?

I would like to study something in radiation therapy or something to do with medicine and be able to go on and help other Australians.And I can't do that because of what I had to go through when I was a child.

So it's this arbitrary, your education stops when you turn 18 in this country.You also can't leave the country.

Why?If I leave the country, I am banned from coming back.And that is, to me, a fate worse than death, honestly, because I love it here.

It's those little things that you sort of take for granted that you could jump on a plane, go somewhere and you can come back and that your mate can't do that.Do you feel sad for her?

Yeah.I mean, when you reach 18, you kind of just assume that that's the beginning of the rest of your life.Is she any less Aussie than you all are?I'd say she's more Aussie.She's got a thicker Aussie accent than all of us.

Sounds like Australia would be lucky to have her as a citizen.Definitely.Definitely.Not only is it the only home she's ever known, there's another reason Eileen is fighting so hard.

Oh, you've gotten heavier.So your brother is seven, Adrian.Yeah.What happens to him?When he turns 10, he gets Australian citizenship because he was born here.I just can't imagine what would happen to him if we were, for some reason in the future, maybe the law changes and we were sent to prison.

What would he do?

Arlene puts a face to a law that, yes, stopped the boats, but with unintended consequences.She's one of 126 children who came here as kids or babies, now left living a life in limbo.

It's like I have this debt that I have to pay off because of something that I didn't have any... choice in.

You're one of the forgotten kids of Nauru.I am forgotten, yeah.It is the Immigration Minister Tony Burke who can determine with a signature whether you become an Australian citizen or not.

What do you say to him?You have the power to give us a future and make us Australian in the way that we know we are.So I would ask him to please help us and I promise that everyone is so dedicated to this country and we would not let you down.

She is pretty amazing and hopefully Eileen's story moves the Minister enough to at least look at her case.She was a kid.She had no choice in coming here.Let's not see her punished any longer.And if you are touched by her plight, please make it known.Write to the Immigration Minister.

A 17 -year -old who works hard, is kind and volunteers.Isn't that exactly the type of person we want in our country?