Video taking off 12x its usual first day

"What's a legitimate refugee?" You Can't Ask That hands the question back

ABC Australia's 2017 episode moves from boat crossings and detention to Vegemite and slang, and its viewers want to know where the guests are now.

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ABC Australia Story of October 12, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 64,794 views a day, 12 times a normal first day on this channel (5,610).

Refugees reveal their Australian culture shocks | You Can't Ask That | Full Episode

The card asks whether she is a boat person, and whether she took the place of a "legitimate refugee." The young woman, born in an Ethiopian refugee camp to South Sudanese parents, answers with a question of her own: "What's a legitimate refugee?"

That exchange sits near the start of "Refugees reveal their Australian culture shocks | You Can't Ask That | Full Episode," which ABC Australia posted as part of its Sunday run of full episodes. It drew about 65,000 views in its first day, far more than the channel's longer uploads usually manage, and its comment section filled about five times faster than usual.

The format, created by Kirk Docker, Aaron Smith and Jon Casimir, is simple: blunt questions on cards, answered by the people those questions are usually asked about. Here the guests include Bella and her daughter Trinite from Burundi, a Hazara man from Afghanistan, a man who fled Iran as a teenager, and two friends who came from Iran and Afghanistan.

The title promises culture shock, and it arrives eventually: Vegemite, the word "mate," the wildlife, streets of mostly white faces. Before that, the guests explain why they left, what the journey cost and what the sea did to them. One recalls the moment an engine died: "The engine is broken. We cannot go forward anymore, and we cannot go back." Another describes detention: "That was the first sign that you're a prisoner." Asked about legality, the Hazara man is direct: "When your life is hanging in the balance, you don't think about legal or illegal."

The description notes the episode was filmed in 2017, and that date shapes the conversation underneath it. Many viewers ask for a follow-up to find out how the guests' lives have gone since. Others single out the Iranian man who speaks of "we Australians," and one reaches for the second verse of the national anthem.

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