Go Back to Where You Came From

This is the third season for Go Back to Where You Came From and the third time I have rated it 5 stars.

You would have to be pretty heartless not to be moved or challenged by this series, which is the best “immersive” format of its kind.

Three years on since its last season, the subject of asylum seekers, refugees, terrorism and border security have increased. They consume our daily headlines and drive political agendas. Its third incarnation ‘goes back’ to the original premise of ordinary Australians challenged on extreme views.

This year they will travel to Indonesia, Iraq, Burma, Thailand, Bangladesh, Cambodia and yes, Syria, where they witness the frontline against ISIS -even having to flee or risk being fired upon.

They will travel by leaky boat from Indonesia towards Christmas Island -only to have their boat turned back in a re-enactment of Australian government policy.

They will peer down on an Australian Detention Centre in Darwin from the safety of a helicopter -because camera access has not been granted.

There are again 6 participants, but this year the balance is not split: 2 are sympathetic towards asylum seekers while 4 are against. By the time the three episodes have ended, those numbers will have shifted.

The most outspoken of the 6 is Townsville’s “Stop the Boats” Facebook campaigner Kim (pictured). If Series One created a TV villain in Raquel, then Kim is about to take her place. “Go and find a real refugee camp…” she insists. “We will not tolerate more people coming to Astraya.” Yes, this is pure Hanson, just without the fish and chips. “Anyone who puts a child on a boat should be charged with negligence… or murder.”

Also against more intake is schoolteacher Andrew, who hates refugees “country-shopping” to reach Australia. There is also a former Vietnamese refugee, Davy, critical of resettled refugees who do not embrace the ‘Australian way of life’. He is also head of the Cabramatta Liberal Party branch. “Bloody pack your bags and go home. Simple as that.”

The most interesting casting are sisters Jodi and Renee. While Renee works as a refugee support worker, Jodi is opposed to queue jumpers.

Lastly there is Nicole, who worked with the Salvation Army at Nauru Detention Centre and describes appalling conditions and mutilation she has witnessed.

Keeping to its original format, the six are divided into two groups to spend time in Sydney homes: three with Ammar and family, ex-Palestinians who fled Iraq, and three with Shonsil, a Rohingya Muslim from Myanmaar (Burma).

When Kim interrupts an evening dinner to ask Ammar, “Am I an infidel?” tension with Nicole is palpable. Even Andrew, who is against more refugees, is embarrassed for his hosts. “You are a traitor,” she tells him.

Meanwhile Shonsil is explaining how Rohingya Muslims are stateless within Burma and he had to leave his family to try to make plans for a better life for them all -but prevented from working, he cannot send money home and waits in limbo having not seen his family in years. Jodi is still not convinced he should have fled to Australia if his life was not in danger when he reached Indonesia.

Flying over Darwin’s Wickham Point Detention Centre, Kim suggests, “I think they’d be very well looked after,” before further arguments ensue in this Reality / Doco hybrid.

But when the six board a boat from Indonesia to Christmas Island, the memories come flooding back for Davy, who was placed on a boat without family when he was just a young boy. “No mum, no dad, on me own,” he recalls. Fear and insecurity compound an already-fragile situation.

In the second and third episodes the conflict and jeopardy are ramped up. The six are confronted are by desperate refugees in massive tent-camps who plead with them for help. These are starving, diseased, stateless adults and children -one scene with an ailing baby is particularly confronting.

The plight of the Rohingya people is explained and experienced -while the views of Buddhists are challenged.

Taking three of the participants deep into the warzone of Syria is a first -as close as 1km from ISIS territory, in earshot of rifleshots and mortars. Wearing flak-jackets, they are instructed by their guide to run for cover.

But there are also moving scenes, notably showing video messages from Ammar and Shonsil to their distant families, while sisters Jodi and Renee are pushed to find common ground. Once again Dr. David Corlett plays host, posing awkward questions that take the temperature of the participants’ experiences along the journey. Colin Friels returns as the pragmatic narrator.

Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder has again negotiated the most extraordinary access for this three-part series, demonstrating why this brand has deservedly won awards around the world. Go Back is a series that strikes at the heart of the SBS charter and hopefully ignites further discussion.

Series 3 highlights the ‘stateless’ asylum seekers and refugees. It is confronting, personal, enlightening and divisive. All the reasons that make it great television, and make it politically important.

Go Back to Where You Came From 8.30pm Tuesday 28, Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 July on SBS.
Followed by a special forum episode of The Feed at 9.30pm, Thursday 30 July on SBS 2.