Afghanistan

This is a message from Rural Australians for Refugees President Louise Redmond on the dire situation for many in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province the Taliban shot a man in a village two days ago (Friday 3 September).  His crime: he had worked with the Australian Army.  

At a nearby village the Taliban took four children hostage, demanding their fathers surrender.  The villagers negotiated their release but the fathers did not offer themselves up, so the Taliban ransacked the village.  Executions are happening daily.  

These stories, and many more like them, are being relayed via Afghans living in Australia as well as former employees of Not-for-Profit Aid organisations, now working outside of Afghanistan.  
The Taliban’s lofty promises not to take revenge are daily being proved treacherous and cynical.  
In this remote area of Uruzgan local people who have worked with the Australian troops have been abandoned by the Australian government.  

 
Smart phones enable international sharing of photos of victims, bullet wounds, bruised and welted bodies, people hiding in caves.  

These stories are finding their way back to a small group of rural Australians who are frantically sponsoring and lodging applications with the Immigration Department for Offshore Humanitarian visas for terrified Afghans.  

Rural Australians for Refugees, an organisation made up of volunteers spread around five states, is coordinating the lodgements, and report that they have no shortage of people stepping forward to complete the paperwork, work through a sometimes baffling online system, and commit to provide material support for the potential refugees they are sponsoring.   

All of the applicants are from the Hazara minority, persecuted under the previous Taliban regime, and they have all worked in roles that make them targets of the Taliban’s warped and venal brand of Islam. 
The RAR group is also urging the relevant federal Ministers to increase Australia’s intake of Afghan refugees to 20,000.  
 

"The Fox" by Mohammad Ali Malek

 "THE FOX" A new little book by Mohammad Ali Maleki

Mohammad spent eight years on Manus Island and remains in detention today in Australia.

Illustrations by: Leila Ashtiani, Janet Galbraith, Jen Tyers, Anita Kelly, Naser, First Dog on the Moon, Mandy Ord, Mars Drum, Fakhr, Eaten Fish, Sina, Rachael Wenona Guy, Michael Camilleri & Daisy Noyes

Published by Writing Through Fences

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“The Fox” is a tale about power and it’s uncertainty, and follows a hungry animal roaming the countryside for food. 
Mohammad says “Unfortunately, everyone who comes to power thinks that they can make decisions for everyone. Unaware that, like the story of the fox, they forget what they were and what they can become.

“I wrote this story that God will give human beings as much power as they deserve.  No more than they deserve.”
Mohammad presents this story “with the hope that one day all prisons and detention centres will be empty of innocent people.”

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All profit from book sales will go directly to Mohammad.

Cost $12 (+ $2.25 postage)

Available online on the SHOP page at: www.writingthroughfences.org

Mandolins in Brisbane Concert

Don't miss this wonderful afternoon of music and support refugees and people seeking asylum in our community.

Click here to purchase tickets!

Redlands for Refugees is proud to present the Scattered People film by Being Reel Films. 

VENUE: Trinity Uniting Church, 47 Marlborough Rd. Wellington Point. Redland City. 

DATE: Sunday June 27 TIME: 2.30 - 4.30 pm 

Coffee Van will be on site after the screening. 

Purchase tickets here

An inspiring and thought-provoking documentary. Music can heal and transform on a personal and community level. But can it build a bridge between middle Australia and some of the world's most vulnerable people? Through the eyes and hearts of two Iranian musicians, Scattered People is a story about the healing power of music, bringing together people, cultures and countries while exploring Australians' attitudes towards people seeking asylum. Scattered People is about the power of music to create change and restore hope. It is a story of restitution and hope, of shared humanity and the role music can play in forging bonds of friendship and respect and giving voice to otherwise unsung heroes. 

It features interviews with music icons including Missy Higgins, John Butler, Archie Roach, Michael Franti, Katie Noonan, Dan Sultan, Baker Boy, Harry James Angus and more. The Scattered People are a band of kindred spirit musicians in Brisbane, Australia who play, write and record the music and stories of asylum seekers they encounter in detention and community centres, producing high quality albums. We follow their relationships, rehearsals and public performances and hear their heartfelt stories of courage and character as they create Sugarmill Road, their last album. The SCATTERED PEOPLE film is an inspiring and thought-provoking documentary about our music and our humanity which paint a picture of life as a musician seeking asylum in an unwelcoming country. 

Being Reel Films was founded with a vision to produce real life stories of humanity to counterbalance an increasingly commercialised and impersonalised world. Being Reel Films is humanitarian, progressive, enabling and empowering, and is driven by universal values of peace, freedom, social progress, equal rights and human dignity, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights half a century ago. The purpose of Being Reel Films is to create films, documentaries and social impact projects with stakeholders that disrupts and creates positive change with 

real-world outcomes.

                                     Purchase tickets here

Asylum Seeker and Refugee Assistance Program receives ongoing Queensland government support.

 Dear All

I wanted to share some good news with you!

 

We’ve just learned that the Asylum Seeker and Refugee Assistance Program whose initial contract ends this month will receive a new contract for $8.3 million over 4 years.

 

The Commission engaged with both the Minister, Leanne Linard, and many State MPs and many of you did also.

 

Thanks so much for your efforts. This is a very good outcome. We expected that the contract would be renewed, but with reduced funding. Instead, the level of funding has been maintained and it is for a much longer period than expected.

 

This will allow the 6 organisations which are part of the ASRA collaboration to offer on-going wrap around support to people seeking asylum who often have no income or accommodation support.

 

Thanks, also, to those who have donated to the ASRA appeal in recent months. Your donations are still welcome as there will be a couple of months delay before the new funding starts flowing. I’ve attached the information on donations if you are interested.

 

Even though it’s wonderful to see this support continue. It is badly needed. Let’s keep doing whatever we can to support the needs of people seeking asylum who find themselves in great difficulty.

 

Peace

Peter Arndt

Executive Officer

Catholic Justice & Peace Commission

Archdiocese of Brisbane

194 Charlotte St., Brisbane  QLD  4000

GPO Box 282,  Brisbane  QLD  4001

P: +61 7 3324 3441

M: +61 409 265 476

The Commission acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we work and live.  We pay our respects to the Elders, past and present.  Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Petition for HUMANE TREATMENT OF ASYLUM SEEKERS

 

Back to Bilo Campaign

 

We encourage you all to support this letter writing blitz in support of the Tamil family still detained on Christmas Island .  

This letter blitz has been given a "thumbs up" by Angela Fredericks (who is the Back to Bilo campaign lead). 

 

See the "Letter-Blitz Kit" including background information and proforma letters to 

• Minister for Home Affairs 
• Minister for Immigration 
• Mr Ken O'Dowd, Federal Member for Flynn (Biloela area) 

• Send copies to your local MP and the PM

The Kit is also available for download on the RAR website - https://www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au/bring-the-tamil-family-hometobilo/

And on the online letter-writing page - https://www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au/rar-groups/online-group/

Join R4R for the Palm Sunday Rally!

 

Palm Sunday Rally

Sunday 28 March at 12 pm

Reddacliff Place 266 George Street Brisbane
(opposite Treasury Casino and at the top of the Queens Street Mall).

Refugee Action Collective Queensland RAC

Find out more on FaceBook Events.

Free the refugees - close all the camps
Permanent visas not poverty
Peace not militarism, no to racism

MC: Dr Peter Catt, Dean of St John’s Anglican Cathedral, Brisbane

Speakers include:

Professor Ian Lowe - Panel Leader on the People's Inquiry into the Costs and Consequences of Australia's Involvement in US led wars.

Kaye Broadbent - Refugee Action Collective

Dozens of asylum seekers released from detention in Brisbane, with more to follow, advocates say

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dozens-of-asylum-seekers-released-from-detention-in-brisbane-with-more-to-follow-advocates-say

Dozens of people in immigration detention in Brisbane have been released into the community. Source: Twitter/@refugeevoicesau

 

Advocacy groups say 25 people held in Brisbane immigration detention facilities are set for release on Monday, with more to follow in the coming days.

 

Dozens of asylum seekers detained in a Brisbane motel are being released into the community on bridging visas, refugee advocates say. 

The Refugee Action Coalition said on Monday morning it understood 25 people who had been kept at the Kangaroo Point Hotel were being granted bridging visas, along with two detained at Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation. 

In January, dozens of asylum seekers brought to Australia under the now-repealed medevac law were suddenly released from detention in Melbourne. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said at the time it was more cost-effective for them to live in the community than in detention centres.

One of those released from detention in Melbourne, Thanush Selvarasa, posted a photo to Twitter on Monday morning saying dozens of people had been transferred from the Kangaroo Point Hotel to BITA.Refugee Voices, an asylum seeker-led advocacy group, said it had also received information 25 people were being released on Monday in Brisbane and that more detainees in Sydney and Darwin would be granted bridging visas in the coming days. 

"We have been in direct contact with some of them this morning and they have been picking up their property and getting their bridging visas," founder Ahmad Hakim told SBS News on Monday morning.

Mr Hakim said he was happy but that more work lay ahead to help get all medevac immigration detainees released.

Muslim detainees at the Kangaroo Point facility filed a complaint last year with the Australian Human Rights Commission saying they had not been given certified halal food for more than 12 months. 

RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul said after the 25 medevac detainees in Brisbane are released there will still be more than 70 others in detention centres across Australia.

“The government’s lack of transparency and chaotic release of medevac refugees is causing increased anxiety and stress among those left behind,” he said.

“Eight years of detention and human rights abuse is too long. They should all be released immediately.”

Jana Favero, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s director of advocacy and campaigns, also said “the arbitrary, delayed nature of releases” and absence of much government information has caused severe mental health harm to asylum seekers still detained.

“People need freedom to recover their health and a permanent home so they can have a future, not six-month visas and more years of stress and failing health,” she said.

A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs did not confirm how many people were being released, but said final departure bridging E visas had been granted with work rights and access to Medicare.

They also reiterated the government’s long-standing position that people under regional processing arrangements would not settle permanently in Australia.

“The Australian government remains committed to regional processing and third-country resettlement for persons under these arrangements,” they said.

“Transitory persons have third country migration options and are encouraged to finalise their medical treatment so they can continue on their resettlement pathway to the United States, return to Nauru or PNG, or return to their home country.”

 

 

 

 

LETTER WRITING WORKSHOP -TimeForAHome' Campaign

REDLANDS FOR REFUGEES ARE SUPPORTING THE 'TIMEFORAHOME' CAMPAIGN by having a letter writing workshop at our next scheduled meeting on March 18. WHEN: Thursday March 18 at 6.30 for 7 pm WHERE: Trinity Uniting Church 47 Marlborough Road, Wellington Point. Qld We welcome anyone who would like to join us and guidance will be given. Pens and paper will be supplied as well. Please RSVP to redlands4refugees@gmail.com by Tuesday March 16. We will commence by joining together for a cuppa at 6.30 pm to be followed by the Workshop to begin at 7 pm. This will be followed by a short meeting. LETTER WRITING WORKSHOP: A hand written letter to politicians is an effective way of taking action. Last year we mobilised hundreds of people to write letters to their MPs as part of the #KidsOffNauru and #Medevac campaigns and we won. If we all write and send letters, these letters pile up in the politicians offices and cannot be ignored- it is a tactile representation of the public support calling for a #TimeForAHome. A great way to get lots of letters written in a fun and supportive environment.

Farhad Rahmati flies to the US.

 

'I'm finally getting my freedom': Farhad to live a free life in the United States

Listen to Rebecca Levingston’s interview with Farhad “I’m finally getting my freedom” by clicking on the link below.

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/programs/mornings/freedom-for-farhad-after-years-in-detention/13168734

February R4R Meting 2021

 

Urgently needed items

 

 A new email from the amazing Dawn Barrington. Much information in this, some worrying news re more attempted suicides in the most vulnerable people seeking asylum who are being held in the APODS - Melbourne and Brisbane. Please see where you can help - we must keep up the pressure on the government. Email politicians, write letters. Send supportive messages to the detainees and/or monetary support if you can.

DAWN BARRINGTON

Singer/Songwriter

Independent Music Professional

Dip. Music 

Mob: 0466 307 817

Hamilton Hill WA 6163

www.dawnbarrington.com.au

https://www.facebook.com/DawnBarringtonMusic/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjLAFVOm9lg&t=182s

Hi Everyone

Wishing you all an amazing New Year for 2021.

Well here we are another year done and what a year it has been.  Let's hope that this year we will see the change that we need to see for all the refugees offshore, onshore and in the community. I know it's wishful thinking but we have to push through the negativity and keep shining a light especially while we have the good fortune to be in a position to do so.

7 Released

We had some really great news 2 weeks before Christmas and we thought that it was the beginning of a mass release. 7 refugees, 6 of which requested to go back to PNG or Nauru were released on a Bridging Visa's. Some lawyers in Sydney managed to put their cases forward and the govt had no choice but to release them. The case was that these men had requested to go back and if the government were not going to do that then they had to be released because, it is illegal to detain someone who is not in some kind of process. They were given bridging visas $300 and 2 nights in a hotel. 

The one who was released without the court case was released because he was so sick mentally that Serco could no longer take care of him so a community member has offered him a room and is getting him the support he needs.

After that a whole heap of us formed a group on whatsapp to prepare for the possible release of many others. At least another 40 have requested to go back and their cases have been submitted to the federal court. We knew that we would need to find temporary accommodation and funds to support those released. However all was quiet and hopes were dashed again.

Mantra refugees moved to Swanston street hotel.

Another blow was when the 60 refugees at the Mantra were called for a meeting with ABF. They were told they were being moved to a better location. 100s of police showed up and a ridiculous amount of police cars and mounted police. The protesters were there too....it was a ridiculous show of power from the Vic Police. The refugees were herded onto buses and taken to the new hotel at 701 Swanston street in Melbourne. The rooms are smaller, the windows are sealed and tinted, except for one....see photo attached. Many can't see outside because there is a brick wall in front of their window. There is a top floor with a community room and a small swimming pool but it's small consolation when they are still stuck in prison. (Pics attached of the daily protesters at the new location)

Ismail suicide attempt

The saddest news was when Ismail who is waiting to go to Canada tried to jump off the roof of the new hotel. The guards grabbed his legs just in time. Ismail is 6.4 young somali man. He helped us so much when we were in Port Moresby, he's the guy at the beginning of our documentary. I have known him for 3 years now and during that time he managed to get permission to go to Port Moresby to work for a few years before he got too sick. We raised the money to send him to Canada but covid has held that up. He is really struggling being confined and guards everywhere make him very anxious. He was the young boy who's mother would put a small piece of paper in his pocket when he went to school each day with his address on so that they would know where to send the body if he was killed. His father was killed by the AlShabab when he was 20 years old. Then he was kidnapped and tortured for 2 weeks before he fled and ended up on Manus. After his suicide attempt last week he was taken to the Melbourne Immigration Transfer Accommodation into a high watch cell. It's a room with a bed, shower and toilet and cameras in each corner. Ismail is a person who said he would never take his life but for the past 8 mths he has been really struggling and he recently told me that he was very fearful for his friend who he thought was losing his mind. He was fearful the same would happen to him and he had become scared of himself because he know longer knew if he had control of his own actions.

When I tell you these stories I am very conscious that every one of these men has a similar story and this is why we have to take more action to get them out of there....please do one thing today to mark the beginning of the change we want to see for 2021...even if it means sharing this story to others or your local members.

Thank you

Thank you again to the amazing donors who have consistently made sure that there are always enough funds to support the men offshore for their phone credit. I never have to worry about them now because I always know there will be enough to keep them topped up. Also thank you to Mid North Coast refugee group for your generous xmas donation and to Ballina Region for Refugees for your ongoing support. I have attached a screenshot of all the purchases for last month.  There has been a mixture of things to support them with and I know that there will be more need when they are released into the community until they find work.  (I have hidden their names because many of them are very embarrassed about receiving things.)

I know that the ASRC is going to give them all $1000 when they are released and 100s of us have offered a room to support someone. 

Donations

If you would like to donate here is the bank account details.

Refugee Fundraiser

Dawn Barrington

BSB 062 692

Acct: 3322 7603

Here are some of the protesters in Melbourne, please join them if you can or tell your friends. https://www.facebook.com/events/147172496962712/

Please join this page to see what action is taking place https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=refugees%20in%20australia%2C%20png%2C%20nauru%20need%20action%20now

'Music Talks' Events

I am going to be doing more music talks events starting asap. I have been contacting community groups and churches. I already have a few bookings but if you know of anyone in Perth who you think would be interested in hosting an event please let me know. I have attached a bio that I have put together especially for it. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness and it is totally voluntary so not costs involved. 

Thank you again everyone. Let's keep up the pressure and I do hope more are released very soon.

All the best

Dawn