Some of the

WORLD
EVENTS

that brought refugees to Australia

A family flees across the Hungarian border.

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Soviet tanks in the streets of Budapest, capital of Hungary. Budapest students and workers next to a toppled statue of Stalin at the beginning of the Hungarian uprising, October 23, 1956

In October 1956 Hungarians rose in revolt against their Russian controlled government. On 4th November Soviet forces invaded Hungary and the revolution was put down.

1956

Hungarian
Revolution

200,000

refugees fled
Hungary

14,000

people resettled
in Australia

Denkt an Prag - Thinking of Prague

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Soviet tank in Prague, 1968 Czech youths holding Czechoslovakian flags stand atop an overturned truck as other Prague residents surround Soviet tanks in downtown Prague on August 21, 1968.

Czechoslovakia was part of Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe. When the Czech leader, Alexander Dubček, began a series of reforms the Soviet Union invaded.

1968

Prague
Spring

200,000

refugees fled
Czechoslovakia

6,000

people resettled
in Australia

Chilean troops make arrests during the military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende. Original members of the Government Junta of Chile, 1973.

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Bombing of La Moneda (presidential palace).

In Chile the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup by General Augusto Pinochet. The coup was followed by a period of persecution and violence.

1973

Chilean
Coup

500,000

refugees fled
Chile

6,000

people resettled
in Australia

A North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, signifying the fall of South Vietnam. Thousands of South Vietnamese people congregate outside the American Embassy in Saigon hoping to get through the gate guarded by U.S. Marines and climb aboard U.S. helicopters that would take them to safety. This was during the final days before North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops marched into the capital city.

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South Vietnamese in Da Nang, Vietnam, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, struggle to climb aboard ships that will evacuate them. South Vietnamese civilians evacuated by USA forces days before the fall of Saigon.

The end of the Vietnam War and the victory of North Vietnam saw many South Vietnamese flee the country.

1975

Vietnam
War Ends

2 million

refugees fled
Vietnam

150,000

people resettled
in Australia

Palestinian Fatah fighters in Beirut in 1979 Beirut, 1986

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Civil war in Beirut 1976. A smoke cloud rises from the rubble of the bombed barracks at Beirut International Airport, 1983.

Between 1975 and 1990, civil war in Lebanon saw widespread destruction as rival groups fought for control of the state. An estimated 120,000 died in the war and as many as 1 million are thought to have fled the violence.

1975

Lebanese
Civil War

1 million

refugees fled
Lebanon

16,000

people resettled
in Australia

Destroyed Afghan village. Soviet troops in Afghan highlands near Kabul, 1986. Officer of 40 Army (OKSVA) conducts fire training with units arrived from the Soviet Union, bombarding them with 30-millimeter automatic grenade launcher AGS-17 “Flame.”
Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan in 1989.

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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent civil war saw millions of Afghans flee the country.

1979

Soviet
Invasion of
Afghanistan

millions

refugees fled
Afghanistan

7,000

people resettled
in Australia

A woman, standing between markers of fresh graves in a Sarajevo cemetery, mourns over the grave of a dead relative in the early morning, on January 17, 1993.

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Smoke and flames rise from houses set on fire by heavy fighting between Bosnian Serbs and Muslims in the village of Ljuta on Mount Igman some 40km southwest from the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, on July 22, 1993. The ruins of Vukovar, November 1991. It was the first large European town to have been destroyed since the second world war.

The breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s saw millions displaced.

1991

Breakup of
Yugoslavia

millions

of refugees fled
Yugoslavia

over 40,000

people resettled
in Australia

Further Reading

Personal refugee stories at The Refugee Council of Australia

About

Educational material for students of
Sydney Distance Education High School

Website by A Rodley

March, 2015