Eight years on from his rescue at sea, a Sri Lankan refugee has made a journey to thank the Croatian captain and crew who plucked him from the Indian Ocean on the way to Australia.

The first time Para Paheer met Nikola Brzica, they were in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 350 nautical miles from the Australian territory of the Cocos Islands and thousands of miles from Para's home in Sri Lanka.

Just last month, Para Paheer and Captain Nikola Brzica were finally reunited in Croatia. ( Supplied: Alison Corke )

The boat he was on — given the official title of Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel (SIEV) 69 by Australian authorities — had sunk, and Para, who could not swim, was left clinging to debris for more than 10 hours.

Captain Brzica was the captain of the LNG Pioneer, a gas tanker making its journey from a port in south-west India to Withnell Bay in WA's north, when it received a message from rescue authorities in Canberra that there was a boat in distress.

Para, the only one with even a basic grasp of English, had been put forward to make an emergency distress call by the Indian captain of the boat.

Sorry, this audio has expired Listen to Para Paheer's story

The first call was made to the Australian Red Cross, but it went straight through to message bank. The second call was made to the Australian Maritime Rescue Authority's rescue centre in Canberra. The transcript of the call makes harrowing reading.

"We are coming to Australia and we have [indistinct] days to go," the call said.

"We are in your country, near your country [indistinct] five kilometres away, but we don't have food and we don't have water also — there's a huge hole in the bottom of the boat … Can you help me?"

What followed was a mammoth rescue effort over two days. By the time Para was pulled from the ocean, he had been in the water for more than 10 hours — and at sea for 30 days.

The date was November 2, 2009, and it was his 31st birthday.

Captain and refugee's bond endures

During the harrowing rescue and before he was transferred to immigration officials on Christmas Island, Para and Captain Brzica struck up a bond that has lasted for eight years.

Last month Para made an emotional journey to the captain's home country of Croatia to meet him for the first time since he was pulled from the ocean, and thank him for saving his life.

Twelve people died when the boat carrying Para sunk in the Indian Ocean in 2009. ( Supplied: Steve Hardie )

"It is very, very emotional for me to see the men who rescued me … I thank God for that day," he says.

In an email exchange with RN Life Matters, Captain Brzica says he was equally touched by the reunion.

"When Para shook my hand strongly, he started laughing and his eyes were shining — almost to cry[ing]," he writes.

"In that moment I was happy and also proud that I helped one young human being to start a new life."

Penpal helped set up life in Australia

The reunion was arranged by Alison Corke, who as a member of the grassroots movement Rural Australians for Refugees, started writing to Para while he was in detention on Christmas Island.

The letters between the two told of Para's experience during Sri Lanka's civil war — how kidnappings, torture and disappearances were commonplace; how as a Tamil and a student leader, he had become a target; how he had been arrested and beaten; and how on his release he and his wife and baby son had fled to India, before Para tried his luck on a people-smuggling boat to Australia.

Alison Corke started writing to Para while he was in detention. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

It was the start of an enduring friendship, recounted in a book they have written together called The Power of Good People.

Ms Corke later sponsored Para to leave the detention centre and come and live with her family at Apollo Bay, a Victorian town at the foothills of the Otway National Park along the Great Ocean Road.

She recalls in those early years, every letter and every conversation was tinged by his determination to meet and thank the captain and crew for all they had done.

While 27 men and teenagers were rescued that day, 12 others lost their lives — deaths that were not only devastating for Para, but for the crew involved in the rescue effort.

"Captain Brzica is an enormous man with an enormous heart. He instantly recognised Para and he was thrilled," Ms Corke says, of the reunion.

"It was fabulous to see how proud they were to have done a great deed. But at the same time it was tinged with sadness, and that was the nice thing — their humanity and compassion was beyond comparison."

The tough decision to leave his family

Para and his wife Jayantha had already fled Sri Lanka and were living in Chennai, India when Para decided to try and get to Australia by boat.

At the time, Indian intelligence authorities were rounding up hundreds of Sri Lankan Tamils who were living in India without registration papers and handing them over to the Sri Lankan government. Time was not on their side.

"I had to make a decision. I don't want to go back to Sri Lanka, I don't want to be handed over to Sri Lankan authorities, I know what is going to happen to me," Para says.

"I was asking my wife what to do and she said, 'you need to find a place, be safe first,' that was the important thing. And then we will decide what to do."

The trip was expensive — $US12,000, which Para borrowed from his sister and brother, who were already living aboard.

Para, his wife Jayantha and his son Abi before Para left for Australia. ( Supplied: Para Paheer )

It was also dangerous, so he would send for Jayantha and his young son Abi when he was safely in Australia.

When Para's boat sank, his wife was initially told by the people smugglers that her husband had drowned.

It was only as family were arriving in Sri Lanka for his funeral that Jayantha, still in India, received a phone call from Christmas Island.

It was her husband, who was very much alive.

Family reunited in Australia

After a number of false starts, Jayantha and now 10-year-old Abi were recently granted a visa to come to Australia.

The three are living together in Geelong, Victoria, where Para has worked his way up from cleaning homes, factories, kitchens and hotels.

University educated in economics and with teaching experience in Sri Lanka, he has just started a new job as a technician in ICU at Geelong's University Hospital.

Para now lives in Geelong, west of Melbourne, with his family. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

The family have lived apart for the best part of eight years, and Abi has spent only three out of his 10 birthdays with his father.

But husband, wife and son were reunited in Australia at the end of September, just a few weeks shy of the eighth anniversary of Para's rescue at sea.

"It is a very great pleasure for me to have my wife and son with me after many, many years," he says.

"[My son], my wife as well, they love this country. We are safe."