January 10: Don't touch me I'm a refugee ...

Don't touch me I'm a refugee, now get me off this boat

I paid that man a bunch of cash, success is now remote

He told me that you'd pick me up, and take me to your shores

I've been out her for sixteen days, I'm hungry, cold and poor

I met him at the airport, I had to pay a bribe

He said "I'll take you to Australia", my delight I couldn't hide

I will not have to stand in line, directly in I'll go

A house, a job, and steady life, it's true, he told me so

I left my home a month ago, for a hotel in Bogor

Twenty hours in a mini-van, to Surabaya's shore

Eighty people, women, kids, teenagers and men

Crammed us in to five old boats, then back to sea again

A plane, a bus, a leaky boat, it's not what I expected

It's all okay he told me, you will be protected

When you reach the open seas, a grey ship will arrive

Trash your boat, jump overboard, they'll help you all survive

It nothing like he told me, this boat is old and frail

This engine it dies twice an hour, and we do not have a sail

Rice and water, all I have, the sea is getting rough

Women and kids are crying, I'm pretending to be tough

I see a plane, it's in the clouds, does it know we're here

A grey ship steams in from the south, we huddle up in fear

Our captain throws the GPS and food into the sea

The engine coughs and then it dies, come and help us please

A rubber dingy comes up so close, five men they board our boat

Attach a rope to our front end, and drag us like a goat

This isn't good, it's morning time, the sun is to my right

We're going north, I know it's so, but I'm just too tired to fight

I'll tell a story, make a lie, they hit me, punched my face

Pressed my palms onto the motor, their behaviour a disgrace

I'll blame them for my peril, I'll garner sympathy

I cannot return from where I came, it's freedom that I seek

But their stories they do not make sense, although the media believes

Their hands show burns that are weeks old, and no bruises do we see

Your story mate, it's all made up, the lies that you all told

By the time the Aussies got to you, your engine - it was cold