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AFRICANS IN AUSTRALIA: OPEN LETTER URGES AUSTRALIANS TO “STA-UP” IN SUPPORT OF REFUGEES

DAVID ADAMS reports … 

A coalition of 68 human rights, welfare and aid organisations have signed an open letter to the Australian people in which they urge people to “stand up in support of African refugees who have resettled in Australia”.

The letter, which was published as a half page advertisement in The Australian newspaper this week, calls on Australians to support the further resettlement of refugees from Africa and their reunification with family members and for the strengthening of services to ease their transition to Australia.

“We urge all Australians, particularly our elected representatives, to stand up in support of African refugees who have resettled in Australia, to support their further resettlement and family reunification, and to strengthen services that make the transition to Australia easy.”

– From the letter. 

“We celebrate the positive contribution African refugees make to Australia – to our communities, our workplaces, our economy, our culture and our society,” the letter says. 

It goes on to say that it’s Australia’s responsibility “to provide protection to refugees regardless of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, political opinion and despite limited previous access to education.”

“For over a decade, Australia has provided safe haven to thousands of refugees fleeing persecution and civil conflict in African countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many have survived torture and trauma, yet have embraced their new home despite the many challenges that face them on arrival, including separation from family and loved ones overseas.”

Signatories to the letter include the Refugee Council of Australia, the Darfur Australian Network, the Victorian Equal Oppoertunity and Human Rights Commission, Caritas Australia, Anglicord, the National Council of Churches in Australia, Amnesty International Australia, Oxfam Australia and World Vision.

Publication of the letter comes in the wake of comments made by Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews. Following an announcement that Australia would accept no more refugees from Africa this financial year, Mr Andrews said he had been “concerned” some groups were having difficulty integrating and went on to claim that African refugees were joining gangs, fighting in nightclubs and gathering alcohol in public.

Paul Power, spokesman for the coalition and chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, says the letter represents an “attempt to set the record straight”.

“The minister’s comments have created a lot of distress for people who have come to Australia as refugees from Africa because they’re quite inaccurate statements,” he says. 

“Certainly every community in Australia has its challenges and its difficulties and its small minorities who have brushes with the law but to suggest there is some sort of widespread failure to integrate – that there are significant crime problems amongst African communities in Australia – is really quite unjustified.”

He says the letter aims to send a message of support to African-born Australians and to express the group’s support for a refugee program based on “humanitarian need and not other factors”.

It also aims to remind Australians that “not only should Australia be proud of the fact that it’s welcomed around 45,000 refugees from African in the past decade, but also the people that have been given a chance to start afresh in Australia are also making a very positive contribution to Australian life”, Mr Power notes. 

He says it was not uncommon for the most recent group of refugees to face criticism from a minority of Australians who fear they won’t be able to integrate properly.

“But generation after generation that’s proven wrong. The discussion some people are trying to raise about recent arrivals from Africa is exactly the same discussion that was being had 20 years ago about people from South East Asia, 40 or 50 years ago about people from Southern Europe and way back to people having similar reservations about the Irish at the time of European settlement. And it’s sad that people don’t learn from history.”

Mr Power says people in Australia’s African communities had been taken aback and deeply hurt by Mr Andrews’ comments.

The idea for the letter originated within the refugee working group of the Darfur Australia Network.

Matthew Phillips, who coordinates the group, says the letter was aimed at ”reframing” the debate and reminding people that selecting people for the refugee program should be based on humanitarian need.

He says the response to the letter from African communities in Australia had been “really wonderful”.

“It kind of comes back to one of the aims of the letter – to give the African communities in Australia…a sense of acceptance and support from the broader Australian community. And, from all reports that I have heard, that is a message that has gone out and been felt strongly amongst communities.”

Meanwhile, in the wake of publication of the letter, the Australian Christian Lobby have said that “high risk” minority groups facing persecution in Iraq – including several Christian groups and the Mandaeans – are being under-represented in Australia’s refugee intake from the Middle East.

Managing director Jim Wallace says that figures provided by an association of Mandaeans in Australia show that only seven Mandaean visa applications had been approved since January 1 and 169 rejected.

He said that given the “endemic” corruption and bias in the Middle East, measures need to be put in place to ensure the most in need are benefiting from Australia’s refugee policy, including an increase in Australian staff based in the Middle East.

www.darfuraustralia.org
www.refugeecouncil.org.au

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