KEY POINTS:
The last time Ahmed Zaoui hugged his son Youssef, the little boy was 4. Yesterday, Youssef, now 9, could not stop hugging his father and beaming.
Mr Zaoui's family slipped almost unnoticed into the country after a 10-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia where they have been
living for seven years.
Mr Zaoui and his wife Leila Tidjani have been apart for 11 of their 23 years of marriage. Since the military coup in Algeria in 1991, which forced Mr Zaoui to flee and lead his family into a nomadic lifestyle, they have lived in five countries but have always been fearful and ready to flee again.
Yesterday, in a tiny lounge in a house in Newton, central Auckland, they said that for the first time since the coup they feel safe and at ease.
They have swapped cramped accommodation on the 19th floor of an apartment building in the crowded city of Kuala Lumpur for a temporary home in a ground-floor house with a backyard, next door to where Mr Zaoui had been living with Dominican friars since his release from jail in 2004.
As soon as the family sat down they marvelled at how peaceful New Zealand seemed. The two older boys, 22 and 19, had been thrilled to have been welcomed to New Zealand as "Kiwis" by staff at Auckland International Airport.
There were no tears, just the wide smiles of a family relieved they no longer have to fear the police and authorities, and ecstatic to be able finally to make plans for a future together.
As Youssef raced around exploring the house, then back to sit on his father's knee and hug him and hassle him to play soccer, Ms Tidjani [in Islam women keep their own surname] and her older sons collapsed on to the yellow sofa on loan from the friars and contemplated the spread of Algerian food and sweets laid out by some of Mr Zaoui's supporters.
They had always felt in their hearts they would all be together again one day, they said.
"This is the end of story - the end of the movie," said Soheib, aged 19.
Oldest boy Hicham, aged 22, was only 6 when the military coup took place. He talked quietly about having to go to school under a false name so he did not lead the military to where his father was hiding, and talked of threats to kidnap Hicham.
Before the coup Mr Zaoui was an associate professor of theology at the University of Algiers and imam of his local mosque.
He stood for the Islamic Front for Salvation in the country's first free elections in 1991 and won his seat.
But the military would not allow the popular Islamic party to take power. A bloody civil war ensued.
Next to Hicham on the couch, her head but not her face covered with a hijab (veil), Ms Tidjani told in a soft voice of feeling afraid for 16 years and the toll it has taken on four boys suffering from the disappearances and imprisonments of their father.
"It has been very hard," she said. Her children have suffered nightmares and everyone is afraid of the police.
"In Malaysia I see the police, always I am scared. I try to be strong with them [the children], to live a normal life, to study, encourage them."
She went to see a doctor in Malaysia who told her she was feeling ill because of so many years of stress.
Yesterday, she looked much less stressed.
Flight to freedom
* Leila Tidjani and the couple's four sons have been living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, since 2000.
* They arrived there with Mr Zaoui and stayed on in hiding when he fled to New Zealand in 2002 after discovering the Algerian Government, which had placed a death threat against him, was trying to find him.
* Mr Zaoui was declared a genuine refugee in 2003 but remained under a cloud because the SIS had invoked a Security Risk Certificate against him. This was lifted five weeks ago.
* His family were granted refugee status three years ago but were blocked from coming here until Mr Zaoui's security risk status was resolved. Once the certificate was lifted the process for their arrival was streamlined.
* They qualify as part of the Government's annual Refugee Quota Programme, which accepts up to 750 refugees a year.
* They are entitled to the same rights as any quota refugees regarding education, health, employment and social welfare. After five years, they may apply for citizenship.
* They will complete a six-week orientation programme at the Mangere Refugee Centre. The centre makes the final decision about where they will live.
* In the five years Mr Zaoui has been in New Zealand he has not applied for a benefit. Since his release from prison he has been supported by the Dominican friars in Newton, a group of Catholic clerics.
