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The Exiles

17:18 Min

Armed with only their grandmother’s maiden name, Singaporean siblings Samson Zee and Lela Zainal had always wondered about her mysterious family she’d left behind in Australia nearly 75 years ago. When they started to search for answers in earnest, they discovered that their grandfather, Jacob Abdullah, was a mariner who had served the Australian navy during World War II - but was deported shortly after under the racist ‘White Australia Policy’. His Australian wife and children followed him to Singapore.

The Exiles

The Exiles - Singaporeans find long-lost family, 75 years after ‘White Australia’ policy tore them apart

08 Dec 2023 11:09pm

Armed with only their grandmother’s maiden name, Singaporean siblings Samson Zee and Lela Zainal had always wondered about her mysterious family she’d left behind in Australia nearly 75 years ago. When they started to search for answers in earnest, they discovered that their grandfather, Jacob Abdullah, was a mariner who had served the Australian navy during World War II - but was deported shortly after under the racist ‘White Australia Policy’. His Australian wife and children followed him to Singapore.

The Exiles

About the show:
The Exiles reveals untold stories of love and loss during an era of racially motivated deportations from post-war UK and Australia. At the end of the Second World War, on opposite sides of the world, Asian men were forcibly deported from their adopted homes, tearing them away from wives and children and thrusting them into an uncertain future. This series tells poignant and little-known stories of men who served valiantly for the Allies during wartime; but in a new era of peace, found themselves unwanted and discarded. Faced with a hostile immigration system, these men were forced onto ships and deported, in some cases in secret and unknown to their own families. The Exiles follows the descendants of these men as they reflect on seismic events from the past which still resonate today. These are poignant and agonising stories of deception and betrayal, and of love and resilience.

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