RAR Update - at the end of 2020, a win for a refugee

9 December 2020 Hello to all RAR Members and Supporters – Welcome to this RAR Update.

On December 2, after more than 12 months of legal battles with Home Affairs, the High Court of Australia has ruled that 50 people seeking asylum can take legal action against the government.
This is a defeat for the minister, Peter Dutton. The refugees can now have their cases heard much faster than he would like, and they will try to bring the government to account for the enormous harm caused by its negligence and lack of duty of care.
The National Justice Project thanked everyone who stood with its clients along this journey, but noted “we still have a long way to go until we secure justice and accountability”.
The NJP is also appealing for funds, because taking on a government with deep pockets and no qualms about slowing down the course of justice in the courts is costly. The costs of the expert medical and psychological reports for the nearly 50 cases to be put to the Federal Court are typically between $5,000 and $10,000 per report. You can donate to support the fight.

Human Rights Day
Thursday December 10 is Human Rights Day.  The RAR Human Rights Sub-committee have made seven short videos with people of lived experience to ask them:  What does human rights mean to you?
We plan to put these videos on the RAR Facebook page - one new video a day for seven days.  Short powerful videos to highlight Human Rights.
We ask you and your members to:

·  watch these videos and share them to your Facebook friends each day for seven days (10 Dec - 16 Dec) ·  if you don't have access to Facebook, go to the RAR website www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au   There will be a link on the homepage to take you to the videos. Share them in whatever way you can.  They will be on YouTube so the link can be shared through emails. These videos aim to bring human rights down to the level of our everyday lives.  Please circulate these as widely as you can over this time. Use the hashtag #humanrightsmatter  when you share.   #TimeforaHome Refugees continue to be locked up by the Australian Government in detention centres and hotel prisons. With our #5/6/7YearsTooLong actions we have highlighted deaths among refugees in offshore detention. But the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre reports that altogether 45 lives have been needlessly lost in detention since 2010, and that in the last 5 years there have been 4,500 assaults on refugees by guards in detention centres. The “alternative places of detention”, the Mantra hotels on Bell street in Preston, Melbourne, and at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane, have been prisons to people seeking asylum for almost two years now. Imagine the stress and mental torment of being locked up in a hotel room indefinitely, with no space to exercise outside, no kitchen to make meals, no fresh air, no access to basic needs and with no plan for your release. The refugees’ lives are being stolen. Yet they are being punished for speaking out against the inhumane conditions they are forced to live in. About 20 refugees from Kangaroo Point have been sent to BITA, the higher security “normal” detention centre in Brisbane, with those who have spoken out appearing to be targeted for removal. We can support the #TimeForAHome campaign, which RAR has endorsed. Already, many groups have sent cards to politicians supporting the return of the Biloela family from detention on Christmas Island to their home town.

 

Urged by Jan, Bendigo RAR hosted a National RAR Conference in September 2016, the first since 2005. From this Conference two projects were launched – the Welcome Scroll, and a new national refugee network. Jan suggested a network incorporate all grassroots refugee groups across Australia, (based on the RAR network model). So a 4-person working group was established, with Jan representing RAR, and a representative from 2 other key networks – the Refugee Advocacy Network (RAN), and the Combined Refugee Action Group (CRAG- Geelong) – and Canberra RAC. The Australian Refugee Action Network (ARAN) held its inaugural conference six months later. Jan has served on both the ARAN and RAR National Committees. Jan is also the driving force behind The Welcome Scroll Project and since 2016 has travelled to WA, SA, ACT, NSW and southern QLD to gather signatures from the Mayors of 127 local councils. The Welcome Scroll Project is a joint initiative of RAR, the Refugee Council and Refugee Welcome Zones to confirm Local Government commitment to welcome refugees into our communities. The scroll is now seven metres long! Next stop Tasmania! The RAR National Committee, and the extensive network of RAR groups would not exist today without Jan’s vision, initiative and tireless work. There is no more fitting person to take up the December award for Unsung Hero than Jan. We thank you Jan, and hold you in our deepest respect and affection. Jan is currently writing the history of RAR. Jan’s words: I recently heard someone from Amnesty International describe that an organisation as being made of “bricks and mortar” – the “bricks” being the people working in the community, and the “mortar” being the backroom people, the “glue” that holds the “bricks” together. I feel enormous admiration for the people who are the “bricks” in our refugee movement, those who work directly with refugees and people seeking asylum, and see myself more as part of the “glue” – the glue that provides information, cohesion, and ultimately the strength of unity, to the national refugee movement. Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre Despite the difficulties of 2020, the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre, which many of you would know from The Staging Post, has continued to support the education of nearly 1000 refugee children through its school and to form community hubs for more than 3000 refugees. Indeed, refugees in Bangkok have also been inspired by the film to start a small learning centre there. We can help to grow this idea further in 2021. See links to videos here and the fundraising page. Team Rebuild Macedon Ranges RAR has a material aid group which supports two refugee families. One of those families, after more than seven years in detention, has reluctantly decided it must look beyond Australia for any hope to rebuild their lives. Kamal and his family have been denied any hope of ever rebuilding their lives in Australia, so now they are looking to Canada for a future they cannot have here. Team Rebuild is supporting their application for private sponsorship resettlement in Canada. It has already established a partnership with a group of seven sponsors in Ottawa and a sub-fund of the Australian Communities Foundation to receive tax deductible gifts (more than $2) towards the AUD$40,000 needed to allow the application to be considered. Team Rebuild advocate Jean Ker Walsh hopes RAR groups will see this as worthy of their consideration. You can help save five lives. Use this link to donate. In the event that the fundraising target is exceeded, or the Canadian resettlement plan is not realised, your gift will support the ongoing needs of this family and others supported by Team Rebuild and the Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project in Australia.   Jonathan Strauss Rural Australians for Refugees Australia Phone: 0437 790 306 E: secretary.rar.australia@gmail.com Rural Australians for Refugees on Twitter and Facebook. RAR is a member of the Australian Refugee Action Network     Our mailing address is: rar.australia@gmail.com

Rural Australians for Refugees · 10 Draper Place · Whitfield, QUEENSLAND 4870 · Australia