Fleeing to Colombia then waiting for a humanitarian visa in Trinidad and Tobago for years, Venezuelan musician Axel Vega's journey is one of thousands being celebrated throughout Refugee Week.
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Refugee Week is Australia's peak annual activity coordinated by the Refugee Council of Australia to promote greater awareness of the issues refugees face and their contributions to Australian society.
This year's theme is Finding Freedom.
Mr Vega, who escaped the political instability and crippling poverty in Venezuela under Nicolas Maduro in recent years, has hit the ground running in Australia towards a more stable life.
"The world moves in strange ways, sometimes we end up being in places that we would never thought of being," the 34-year-old bass guitarist who has been in Australia for only 10 months told AAP.
Forced displacement has surged to historic new levels with the United Nations refugee agency estimating there are 120 million refugees worldwide in a new United Nations report released on Thursday due to new conflicts erupting in Palestine and Sudan.
Australia accepts about 20,000 refugees annually, falling well below international standards.
Mr Vega remembers being excited about political change coming to Venezuela with the opposition movement a decade ago but could not predict the heavy-handed crackdown and the eventual economic downturn.
"I had concerts and I had some songs that reflected the situation when we lived there. It wasn't too explicit ... but if you read between the lines I was speaking about the system."
While applying for jobs using his IT and audio visual productions skills, he has joined a music band of fellow travellers who have also been uprooted from their homelands.
The band which is still honing in on a name that captures the diverse experiences of its members from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq is performing on Sunday in Sydney to kick off the week's festivities.
Brought together with the help of Settlement Services International (SSI), the band aims to offer a creative and therapeutic outlet for talented refugees, promoting community integration and cultural expression in different languages.
"Because I lived in other countries and had to start from zero, I had a bit of experience ... but the hard part is finding a job without local experience."
The settlement agency estimates that $1.25 billion in lost wages over five years can be gained by utilising the skills of refugees and migrants such as Mr Vega.
Other events across libraries and community centres nationwide include a film screening of Watandar, My Countryman in Melbourne on Tuesday by former Afghan-Australian refugee film-maker Muzafar Ali.
The film documents the experiences of descendants of Afghan cameleers and their contributions in the Australian outback while also focusing on the Taliban taking over Afghanistan in 2021.
Australian Associated Press
