Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts : Newsletter for Rural Australians for Refugees, Bellingen and Nambucca Districts, May 28, 2019

Evacuate Manus Island and Nauru refugees now

Meeting and lunch on 26^th May

Valla Beach market: Saturday 1^st June from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm

Bellingen Youth for Refugees: a musical feast: Sunday 2^nd June from 2.00pm to 5.00 pm

Roadside demonstration: Thursday 6^th June from 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm next to the Big Banana

Our fundraising efforts in 2019

Information from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Biloela family update

Meeting and lunch on 26^th May

We had a great turn out of more than thirty people for our meeting and lunch on Sunday. It was really encouraging to welcome a significant number of new

At Sunday's RAR meeting and lunch in Valla

supporters, who contributed very positively to our discussion. We reviewed the past year of our campaigning and fundraising, and as you can see in the attached report, we have been very active. Much of the time at our meeting was devoted to planning ahead, both for our campaigning and fundraising efforts. What is really clear from our meeting is that we are utterly determined to redouble our efforts to bring about an end to offshore detention and to campaign for the needs and rights of asylum seekers already living in Australia. We will give you a more detailed account of our deliberations in next week’s newsletter.

Following the meeting, we enjoyed one another’s company and shared great food on the deck. A big thank you to all those who were able to attend.

Valla Beach market: Saturday 1^st June from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm

We are planning to have our stall on Saturday at the popular Valla Beach market. We’ll be talking to market-goers, handing out leaflets, selling our merchandise and encouraging people to sign our new open letter. If you can join us for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.

Bellingen Youth for Refugees: a musical feast - Sunday 2^nd June from 2.00pm to 5.00 pm

On Sunday 2^nd June from 2.00 pm until 5.00 pm, a group of talented young musicians will be performing at the Bellingen Golf Club to raise funds for refugees living in our region. The line-up includes the Bellingen High School String Quartet, the Bellingen High School Jazz Ensemble, Gungunbuwala choir and drumming circle and many other individual musicians. The funds raised will support education and employment initiatives such as home reading and pathways to employment programmes, run by refugee support groups in our region.

Tickets are $20, available from the Youth Hub or the Bellingen Golf Club. It is likely to be a sell-out, so get your tickets soon! For further information, contact Fiona on 0429 033814.

We are delighted that the young people of Bellingen are willing to give up their time and share their great talents in support of our refugee community.

Roadside demonstration: Thursday 6^th June from 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm next to the Big Banana

Now that the federal election is behind us, we are gearing up to restart our roadside demonstrations, and we are hopeful that more of our supporters will want to join us. The first post-election demo will be on Thursday 6^th June from 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm by the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour. We have lots of banners and placards to share, and we hope that there will be enough of us to make a big impact. Please join us if you can.

Thereafter, we will continue with our fortnightly demonstrations at the usual venues:

Thursday 20^th June: opposite the Base Hospital in Coffs Harbour

Thursday 4^th July: Waterfall Way, Bellingen

Thursday 18^th July: Hogbin Drive, Toormina

Our fundraising efforts in 2019

Last week we were able to transfer $1,300 to the Asylum Seekers Centre to support their vitally important work with asylum seekers in Sydney. This brings our total contribution to the ASC to $5,500 so far this year. It is important to understand that federal government policy changes in the past year, restricting access to income support for people seeking asylum, have progressively pushed people, families and children, into poverty, further marginalizing an already vulnerable group. The ASC is currently assisting 529 families, including 942 children.

End off shore detention of refugees

Information from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Following the federal election, Kon Karapanagiotidis, the CEO of the ASRC, wrote a very lengthy, heartfelt letter to all ASRC supporters. In the letter, Kon sets out a clear list of the discussions that ASRC will seek to pursue with the newly-elected government. They are worth sharing:

Resettling all men and women on Manus and Nauru, including accepting the NZ deal.
Immediate restoration of the SRSS (income safety net) and a universal safety net for all people seeking asylum including the right to work and Medicare.
Immediate change in status for people from Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEVs) into Permanent Protection Visas.
Restoration of government- funded legal assistance and interpreters for people seeking asylum at all stages.
Abolition of the Fast Track legal process and people to be given access to a fair and robust legal process.
Permanent protection or resettlement for people transferred from offshore detention to Australia.
Reassessment of claims rejected under the unfair Fast Track process.
To consider/reconsider compelling humanitarian cases such as the returning of Priya, Nades and kids home to Biloela.

Valla market stall

Biloela family update

This Tamil family, who were snatched from their home in Biloela, central Queensland, by police and Australian Border Force personnel, have now spent 15 months in the Melbourne Transit Accommodation Centre. The youngest child has now lived more than half her life in detention. The people of Biloela launched a petition which gathered almost 200,000 signatures, and held marches and demonstrations across the country to try to persuade the government to return the family to their home, but to no avail. They could be deported back to danger in Sri Lanka any day now, having exhausted their appeals. Only ministerial intervention now lies between them staying or being deported. The two children, isolated from the company of other children, have, unsurprisingly, developed behavioral and other problems. The younger child has rotting teeth as a result of the poor diet in the detention centre. This is how our government treats asylum seekers in 2019.

Please consider contacting David Coleman, the Minister for Immigration, to ask him to intervene and to allow the family to return to Biloela, where they are much-loved members of the community.

Email: immigration.minister@homeaffairs.gov.au. Tel: 6277 7770