Dig Deep during Covid-19

Dear Friends

 

Redlands for Refugees  (R4R) give thanks for some very generous donations over the past month. This week we have been able to donate $1000 each to the Romero Centre and the Indooroopilly Unting Church Refugee and Asylum Seeker support group. We have also been able at this time to maintain our support for two refugee families in our area. This follows our request last month where we sought donations to help continue our work in supporting refugees and asylum seekers.  As you know R4R is unable in the current Covid-19 restrictions to fundraise or collect any money at meetings.   

Unfortunately this situation will continue for some time, so we are once again asking for your support in an ongoing capacity. R4R understands the  financial constraints that all people are experiencing and this is only a suggestion for those who may be able to help in this small way.

Many of us may have a regular café-coffee or ‘lunch with friends’ routine.  Now we cannot do that so easily.  This is an opportunity to use those saved dollars for this campaign ‘Dig Deep during Covid-19’– a suggestion from  Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) of which R4R is a member group.

 It is a great idea and a wonderful way to maintain an ongoing amount in R4R’s bank account.  Your donation, however small, whatever you can afford, will help a family in distress.  We are suggesting a regular donation, for the next six months – June to December. 

People on temporary visas and bridging visas – many of whom were working and supporting themselves – do not get JobSeeker or JobKeeper income from the Government. There will also be a financial fall-out from COVID when the restrictions are lifted.

While big efforts are being made to get the Government to change their policy, thousands of vulnerable people need money for food, rent and living costs NOW.  They are calling on groups like ours, and on community service organizations for help, at a level that these organizations have not seen before.  As you know R4R have been calling for help for the Romero Centre as their needs have increased markedly. There has been a wonderful response to this from grocery deliveries, store vouchers and direct donations.

 R4R would love to be able to continue supporting refugees and asylum seekers in an ongoing capacity.

If you can assist, please email R4R to receive further details.

Thanking you for your past and ongoing support for refugees and those seeking asylum.

 

Yours faithfully

Lyn Moore

R4R Convenor 

Minutes of the May R4R meeting.

Minutes 
R4R Meeting

May 2020

have been emailed to members. Check your Junk / Spam folder if you have not received them.

R4R May Meeting

will be held on 

Thursday, 14 May

Meeting will commence at 7.00 pm

using

Zoom

Instructions are provided in the email invitation.

Check your junk mail if you haven't received the Notice of Meeting

Everyone is welcome.

Please submit agenda items to 

redlands4refugees@gmail.com

Special Update on the Biloela family

This is a special RAR Update on the Biloela family and activists.

Free Priya, Nades and Their Girls! - Digital Rally

Priya, Nades and their Australian-born girls, Kopiga and Tharunicaa, had come to Australia seeking protection after persecution as Tamils in Sri Lanka. They had been living in the small Queensland town of Biloela on a temporary visa before being put in detention – now on Christmas Island – for more than two years.

After many legal challenges, on April 17, the Federal Court of Australia found that Priya’s youngest daughter, Tharunicaa, was not afforded procedural fairness in the decision about her application for a protection visa. The courts ordered that their legal costs be paid by the government.

Despite the court victory, the family remains in detention and continue to face the threat of deportation to Sri Lanka. Acting Minister for Immigration Alan Tudge and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton have the power to release Priya, Nades and their two girls and allow them to return to Biloela.

The Tamil Refugee Council has organised a digital rally which you can join by Zoom

Go to digital rally

Speakers include Vashini Jeyakumar, fellow Tamil and refugee, is a friend of Priya when she lived in Biloela, and Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman, former Greens MP, and the first Aboriginal woman elected to Victorian Parliament. 

The organisers write: “We must keep up the pressure to let this family stay - mass mobilisation from the refugee movement allowed baby Asha to stay, after health workers refused to send her back to Nauru. The people of Biloela mobilised to defend Priya, Nades and their girls, and almost 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for the family to stay. The Coalition government must not ignore the groundswell of support for this family.”