Course Of True Love Is Circle Of Fire

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday August 9, 1999

By JON MARSH Ethnic Affairs Writer

Darko Djeric believes he has done some hard yards to earn the right to live in Australia.

The native of Montenegro travelled thousands of kilometres, crossed war zones and evaded military checkpoints - all in the name of love for his pregnant Australian bride Melissa, who refused to leave his side.

Now, as the couple prepare to celebrate their first wedding anniversary in Sydney, they are about $20,000 out of pocket and asking: "Why did we have to go through all this to get back to Sydney, where we started?"

Their experience has also prompted a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, which helped the couple, to wonder if there is not a better way for the Australian Government to process similar visa applications and check on "sham" marriages.

Mr Djeric, 23, a merchant seaman who feared being forced into the Yugoslavian Army, jumped ship in Sydney in 1997 and applied for refugee status.

While the application was being processed, he fell in love with Melissa, 24, and they married in September last year. His refugee application was rejected and he was told to apply for an Australian visa from his home country.

Despite being pregnant, Melissa travelled back to Montenegro with her husband in January. By March they were in a war zone, with NATO bombs falling on nearby villages.

"I went because I had no idea when I might see him again," Melissa said. "I'd never been out of Australia before and here I was in the middle of a war. We were living next to a military base. It was pretty scary.

"If it was such a sham marriage what was I doing going with him, especially when I'm pregnant."

Mr Djeric travelled first to the Australian Embassy in Belgrade and, because it was closed, to Budapest, Hungary. In June, he was finally granted a visa and the couple returned to Sydney.

"I really would not want anyone else to go through what we did," he said. "On our first wedding anniversary we are going to have a big celebration.

"If I had been picked up by the military and forced into the army my wife could already be a widow."

Mr David Lloyd, from the Russian Orthodox Church which helped Mr Djeric in Sydney, said the Immigration Department did a good job in difficult circumstances.

"No system is perfect but perhaps there is a better way, especially in this sort of case. The problem is that there are a large number of sham marriages and rorters," he said.

"It's an extraordinary love story. Quite inspirational. What they have been through in their first year of marriage would make a great movie."

An Immigration Department spokesman said there had been a crackdown on sham marriages in recent years.

© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald

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