ONE of the most important things Tiep Nguyen received when he came to Australia was an identity.
After being forced into a concentration camp in Vietnam for eight years in 1975 he lost everything.
With no formal identification, it was as if never existed, he said.
He escaped to Australia in 1984.
Last week his name was on the Australia Day Honours List.
He received the Order of Australia Medal for his contribution to the Vietnamese community in Australia.
Mr Nguyen is a Vietnamese bicultural counsellor at STARTTS — Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors, an organisation funded by the NSW Department of Health.
It was the first of its kind in Australia that looked after the psychological needs of refugees.
"I provide help but I also find joy in helping others," Mr Nguyen said.
He was the founding member and inaugural president of the Vietnamese Australian Welfare Association in 1989 and has a list of achievements.
Mr Nguyen celebrated Australia Day with his wife Thanh and his 11-year-old son Quang by reflecting on all the reasons to be thankful.
Before coming to Australia, Mr Nguyen had set up a successful career for himself as an English teacher and a school counsellor in South Vietnam.
"When the communists came in they took over the country," he said.
"One night the police [who controlled the street quarters] were given an order to get people and they took me away.
"I was put in a labour camp for two months but you are really a prisoner.
"We had to use basic tools like a knife or an axe to clear the jungle and make space for planting.
"We had to go in the woods to cut the timber and then carry it back on our shoulders.
"If you were hungry and were caught eating something in the field like a piece of raw corn then they would force you to eat two kilograms of raw corn until you got sick.
"If you attempted to escape and got caught you would get badly beaten, put in a solitary cell and you might even be shot."
Mr Nguyen was temporarily released from the camp on Christmas Day, 1982.
"I was not allowed to go back to my home, I was homeless, I had no identity or official documents," he said.
"In September 1983 my nephew and I escaped in secret."
He said about 30 people got onto a 12-metre-long boat.
They were lucky enough to arrive safely in Indonesia where they stayed in a refugee camp for six months before being accepted to Australia.
Mr Nguyen said the first few years when he was living in Australia were difficult.
"I was haunted nightly and I would get nightmares that I was still in the prison camp," he said.
"When I woke up I would be very scared but also joyful because I would realise I am in Australia, I am safe."
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