Maya Assad needed a stroke of luck.
For more than a year the engineer and her businessman husband had been jobless, as the economy in the country in which she was born and raised, Lebanon, imploded.
But their predicament was made infinitely worse by their status as Palestinian refugees, rendering them second-class citizens with almost no rights.
Palestinian refugees have been stateless in Lebanon since 1948.
Although Ms Assad received her bachelor's degree through a United Nations scholarship and worked as a civil engineer for eight years, she could not formally disclose her occupation, which barred her from professional associations and even from signing off on jobs.
And when she and her husband bought a house, it had to be registered under a Lebanese person's name.
But one ordinary day, the phone rang and changed her life forever.
The person on the other end of the line was following up on an application she made two years ago, on a whim, to be part of a new skilled refugee pilot program in a far-flung place called Australia.
Ms Assad, who said she had applied for more than 100 jobs over the years only to be rejected because of her refugee status, was caught by surprise.
"I forgot that I applied for this one," she said.
But although she had long hoped to immigrate to Canada or the UK, Australia made her a little nervous.
"We don't know anybody there," she said.
But she was determined to spare her son a life of discrimination and pushed ahead with the process.
On the first of this year, Ms Assad became the first person to arrive in Australia through a new Skilled Refugee Pilot program.
Removing 'administrative barriers' for refugees
The Skilled Refugee Pilot launched on July 1 last year, with places for 100 skilled refugees and their families.
Just this week, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke upped that number to 200, making room for 50 Afghan nationals and 50 Ukraine nationals and their families.
The program essentially gives refugees access to existing skilled visa programs but with more flexible eligibility requirements.
Steph Cousins, the chief executive of non-profit Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), which designed the scheme alongside government, said many refugees faced bureaucratic hurdles such as not having documents to prove their skills or expired passports.
"But they may just have these administrative barriers that need to be overcome in the visa process."
She said while some refugees cannot afford visa costs, the program got around that by getting Australian employers to recruit and then sponsor the applicant.
"So they're getting a skilled worker and in return they cover the visa fees and flights and things that would normally prevent refugees from accessing these options," she said.
The trial is set to run for two years, after which she hoped the program would be made permanent.
'We get a spectrum of ideas'
Dr Shaun Meares has always struggled to recruit workers.
His firm Bluemar Consulting Engineers, in Esperance on WA's south coast, is forced to compete with capital cities and mining companies for talent.
But he is a big believer in diverse workplaces and has previously sought staff from all over the world through skilled migrant programs.
"Diversity of human capital is really important, so we get a spectrum of ideas," he said.
When he learned of the Skilled Refugee Pilot, he was one of the first to sign up.
While that threw him into a world of immigration law and negotiating visa complexities, 18 months later his new employee, Ms Assad, finally arrived.
"We think [the long process] is worth it," he said.
"[It's] exciting to be at the forefront... and to be able to lead industry by example."
'It's a good place'
As a Palestinian refugee, Ms Assad said there were beaches in Lebanon she was not allowed to go to because they were too close to Israel.
But in Esperance, she has beaches galore on her doorstep.
But other changes have taken some getting used to.
"At 6pm you will not find anyone here on the street, in Lebanon it's the opposite," she said.
"People are in the street at 12, at 1am.
In four years, if all goes to plan, she and her family will also be eligible for Australian citizenship, which after a lifetime of statelessness is an extremely exciting prospect.
