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Vietnamese refugee who fled her war-torn country in a row boat becomes an award-winning Australian barrister as she reveals the touching reason she wanted to pursue a career in law

A woman who was born in an Indonesian refugee camp has shared her remarkable journey from asylum seeker to award-winning Australian barrister who represented the victims of genocide from Cambodia's oppressive dictatorship.

Lyma Nguyen's parents fled Vietnam in a fishing boat in the early 1980s when the nation's communist regime made their lives a living hell, ransacking homes, bombing cinemas and burning universities to the ground.

Locked up, beaten and tortured in prisons for crimes they did not commit, the couple in their 20s only managed to escape successfully on their second attempt.

Ms Nguyen, who was crowned winner of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Award this week, told Daily Mail Australia her parents would likely have died had they been unable to escape their homeland.

Lyma Nguyen (pictured) was crowned winner of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Award this week

Lyma Nguyen was crowned winner of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Award this week

Pictured: Ms Nguyen (left as a baby, and one) held by her father Vinh Quoc Nguyen at the refugee camp. Her sister Uyen Nguyen is pictured right, age five

Pictured: Ms Nguyen (left as a baby, and one) held by her father Vinh Quoc Nguyen at the refugee camp. Her sister Uyen Nguyen is pictured right, age five

'They spent three days and three nights at sea, and my mother had a young daughter at the time and was heavily pregnant with me - she said it was the most terrifying experience of her life.'

The young family fortunately encountered an American oil rig and were taken on board by the crew.

Ms Nguyen's mother was flown in a helicopter to give birth to her on Kuku Island refugee camp in 1982 - a tiny drop of land in the Anambas Islands, off the east coast of Malaysia. 

'My mother thought the helicopter pilot asked her to name me Lyma, so she did, but her English wasn't very good and I don't know if that was lost in translation.'

Pictured: Lyma (right) with her mother Lan Huynh and brother Anthony after moving to Brisbane

Pictured: Lyma with her mother Lan Huynh and brother Anthony after moving to Brisbane

After spending the first two years of her life in a refugee camp and gaining a little brother, Ms Nguyen's (pictured with her family, in white) were moved to Perth before they eventually settled in Darra, Brisbane

After spending the first two years of her life in a refugee camp and gaining a little brother, Ms Nguyen's (pictured with her family, in white) were moved to Perth before they eventually settled in Darra, Brisbane

'He might have been signalling something, who knows, but 'Lyma' in Indonesian means the number five,' she laughed.

After spending the first two years of her life in a refugee camp and gaining a little brother, Ms Nguyen's family were moved to Perth before they eventually settled in Darra, Brisbane, which was riddled with crime.

'I remember our family home was robbed a few times and you were told not to go out after dark because there were so many people using drugs.'

Though she excelled at school, was published in the local paper in Year 6 calling for world peace and dreamed of becoming an author.

Though she excelled at school, was published in the local paper in Year 6 and dreamed of becoming an author

Though she excelled at school, was published in the local paper in Year 6 and dreamed of becoming an author

'My mother was wrongly accused of being a spy after some American soldiers had their photo taken with her at the age of 17.' Pictured: Lyma's parents

'My mother was wrongly accused of being a spy after some American soldiers had their photo taken with her at the age of 17.' Pictured: Lyma's parents

But behind her happy exterior, Ms Nguyen began to look at her family and came to the slow realisation that her parents - loving and caring as they were - projected the trauma of their past onto their children.

'My mother was wrongly accused of being a spy after some American soldiers had their photo taken with her at the age of 17.'

She was locked in a tiny cell with my older sister and two other women - they were starved and malnourished and tortured, and the conditions were unhygienic.'

Her father's family were persecuted for being relatively well off, until he was eventually locked up for trying to escape. 

Her father's family were persecuted for being relatively well off, until he was eventually locked up for trying to escape. Pictured: Lyma (right) with her sister outside their home in Darra

Her father's family were persecuted for being relatively well off, until he was eventually locked up for trying to escape. Pictured: Lyma with her sister outside their home in Darra

Despite toying with the idea of working for humanitarian organisations to help people from war-torn countries, she realised she could make a real difference in people's lives if she became a lawyer. Pictured with her brother at her graduation

Despite toying with the idea of working for humanitarian organisations to help people from war-torn countries, she realised she could make a real difference in people's lives if she became a lawyer. Pictured with her brother at her graduation

'My home life wasn't happy ... My parents' trauma seemed into out domestic lives and I developed the feeling I needed to leave as soon as I could.'

Despite toying with the idea of working for humanitarian organisations to help people from war-torn countries, she realised she could make a real difference in people's lives if she became a lawyer.

Soon after graduating in the mid 2000s, Ms Nguyen decided to fly to Cambodia to represent victims of the Khmer Rouge - a brutal regime that took hold of the nation in the 1970s, claiming two million lives.

'There was a group of people of Vietnamese descent who were also victims of the regime, having been living in Cambodia for generations,' she said.

Ms Nguyen decided to fly to Cambodia to represent victims of the Khmer Rouge. Pictured: Ms Nguyen in court chambers in Cambodia

Ms Nguyen decided to fly to Cambodia to represent victims of the Khmer Rouge. Pictured: Ms Nguyen in court chambers in Cambodia

'With Cambodian victims I had a translator so the conversations were always a bit stifled, but I was able to go out to these small communities and collect the statements of ethnic Vietnamese people in their language.'

Ms Nguyen said the experience has been the most rewarding of her career to date, despite endless horrific stories of murder and torture.

One story which stood out was told by a man who had been forced to stand with his family and dig their own graves.

They were told to kneel side-by-side along the trench as guards came and whacked them in the head, killing them one by one.

Pictured: Lyma Nguyen at a floating village on the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia, where her clients lived

Pictured: Lyma Nguyen at a floating village on the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia, where her clients lived

Ms Nguyen (left with a Cambodian/Vietnamese woman during her humanitarian work) explained she was grateful to be able to go to those locations and collect victim statements for historical records

Ms Nguyen (left with a Cambodian/Vietnamese woman during her humanitarian work) explained she was grateful to be able to go to those locations and collect victim statements for historical records

'He woke up with the bodies of his family all around him,' Ms Nguyen said.

'He crawled out of the grave, went to a neighbouring region and got some help. He still has wounds on his throat, neck and head where he was brutally assaulted, with the intention of killing him.'

The court cases are ongoing, but Ms Nguyen explained she was grateful to be able to go to those locations and collect victim statements for historical records, if nothing else.

Working in Darwin as a human rights lawyer, the now 38-year-old doesn't know if her family would have been able to enter Australia under the same circumstances today.

'Under the Hawke government in the '80s, everything was more more humanitarian,' she said.

'My parents were able to grow vegetables and barter in the refugee camp - it was very different to the detention centres asylum seekers now face in Australia.'

On winning her award this week, the barrister hopes to inspire other Asian-Australians to share their stories. 

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