ACRT Media Release

20 July 2020

Churches Taskforce seeks assurances to reduce detention health risks

In an urgent letter to the Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly and the Minister for Health, Mr Greg Hunt, the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce (ACRT) has sought urgent assurances from the responsible government public health authorities that the people at detention centres have safe accommodation during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

The NCCA  and the ACRT released a combined Media Statement on Monday 20 July appealing for guaranteed access to COVID-19 testing when any symptoms are present in immigration detention centres and an assurance that people moving in and out of these locations in a staff role are both trained and monitored with regard to the highest standards of infection control and prevention. 

Mr Rob Floyd, Chair of the Australian Churches’ Taskforce said that “With the recent infections of staff assigned to the Mantra Hotel at Preston in Melbourne’s COVID 19 lockdown area, and Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney, we believe that the public health risks mean that those moving freely in and out of these centres pose the highest public health risk at this time.”

Read the full Media Release:  CHURCHES TASKFORCE SEEKS ASSURANCES TO REDUCE DETENTION HEALTH RISKS 

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ACRT Submission

10 June 2020

ACRT made a submission to Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry - Migration Amendment (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 [Provisions].

ACRT’s submission sought to remove the proposed new statutory search power which would give the Australian Border Force power to confiscate mobile phones from people in detention. We argued primarily on mental health grounds and the ability to be in contact with legal assistance, family and friends. We also noted that mobile phones are one of the strongest mechanisms for transparency about conditions being faced by people in detention.

CLICK HERE FOR ACRT SUBMISSION

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ACRT asks Minister for Income Support for Asylum Seekers

26 MARCH 2020

‍The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) and the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce (ACRT) have written to Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alan Tudge MP, and the Prime Minister, calling for the Federal Government to urgently extend income support and access to Medicare to asylum seekers under the corona virus support package to vulnerable groups. 

ACRT request that:

• the 30,000 women, men and children who are on bridging visas (which give no certainty about the future) or without a visa, be included in the income support measures announced by the Commonwealth government.
• all asylum seekers (at any stage of their application process) be given access to Medicare
• all asylum seekers who lose their jobs (usually these are low paid, part time or casual) have the same access to income support as others in the Australian community.

Download the letter to the Acting Minister and PM 

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AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIP
5 July 2021

The Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative has now become an incorporated Australian charity operating under the new name of ‘Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia’ (CRSA).  

The new CRSA website has a short video of the pilot Group Mentorship Program. View it here. Information on the New Program Intake – Public Information Sessions can be found here.

AUSTRALIAN ASYLUM POLICY 
30 June 2021

• 7,000 are waiting in limbo, need safety 
   
• Australia’s human rights record                 

     Read more

IN THE NEWS
20 June 2021
Community detention and the 'Biloela' family

What is community detention, and how does it fit into Australia’s larger immigration detention regime?

Keeping refugee advocacy alive - new policy briefs on current issues created by JRS Australia and Vinnies NSW  Read more

RESOURCES
17 July, 2019
Return to Homeland Resource Guide
Many asylum seekers living in our community are facing rejection of their asylum application and subsequent return to their homeland. This guide provides information to help community understand what the process may look like and in what ways a person may assist.   Download the Resource Guide

COMMUNITY
3 June, 2019
Community Sponsorship Scheme
From Lisa Button, Director of Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative.
This paper outlines in detail CRSI’s vision for a future community sponsorship scheme in Australia as undertaken in Canada.  Read the full report

Latest News

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YOU CAN HELP!

The Refugee Council of Australia is collating information on how the new detention visiting procedures are impacting on being able to visit detainees. Your experiences can help advocate for better visiting experiences.

Use the feedback form on the RCOA website to document your experiences of detention visiting, so we can build an evidence base to advocate for more compassionate procedures. ‍

Program Partners

Refugee Council 

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SHARE OUR VISION FOR A COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIP SCHEME IN AUSTRALIA

January 2022

New program commencing July 2022

Thank you to the church groups and individual Australians across the country who rallied to help trail-blaze this new approach by signing up to be part of the Group Mentorship Program for newly arrived refugees.  Read more

For more information about joining with the groups involved in a new era of refugee protection in Australia, contact Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA). 

July 2021

The Initiative has now become an incorporated Australian charity operating under the new name of ‘Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia’ (CRSA). The new organisation has launched their website: www.refugeesponsorship.org.au 

The CRSA website has a short video highlighting the great work that local refugee mentor groups and mentees have been doing over the last 9 months under the pilot Group Mentorship Program, a precursor to a future sponsorship program. View it here.

CRSA will be running the Group Mentorship Program again in 2021.  This will involve mobilising and training more local groups of volunteers around the country and then linking them with refugees in Australia in need of additional settlement support.  CRSA will host online public information sessions in July and August 2021, with the application process to join the program opening in August.

Information on the New Program Intake – Public Information Sessions can be found here.

Program Partners

Amnesty International

Refugee Council

Save the Children 

Welcome to Australia  

From Lisa Button, 

Director of the Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative

I am delighted to be able to share with you the latest publication of the Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (CRSI):

A New Model for Community Refugee Sponsorship in Australia.  

This is our most comprehensive policy paper yet and is inspired by the Canadian sponsorship scheme which has seen more than 300,000 refugees welcomed and settled in Canada in the last 40 years through sponsorship by community groups (including faith groups, sporting clubs, universities and workplaces) in addition to those settled under the government-funded resettlement program.  As the name suggests, this paper outlines in detail CRSI’s vision for a future community sponsorship scheme in Australia and contains some useful diagrams and a helpful 12-point ‘Key Features’ section at the back.

Having just attended and hosted a number of briefings last week in Melbourne and Canberra with Canadian and UK colleagues from the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative, my CRSI colleagues and I feel confident that a community sponsorship scheme could be established in Australia in the near future and could grow to become a permanent feature of an enhanced Australian response to global forced migration. Such a scheme could enjoy support across the political spectrum by offering a range of benefits to people fleeing persecution as well as to sponsoring communities and Australian society in general.

Lisa Button

Director, Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative

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  Campaigns

DIGNITY NOT DESTITUTION
Around 12,000 people seeking asylum in Australia may be at risk of losing core services and financial support due to Government changes in the Status Resolution Support Services. The SRSS is a regular payment to help with basic living costs for those who live in Australia awaiting a decision about their immigration status.  

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COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIP TO AUSTRALIA
The ACRT, together with Save the Children, Refugee Council, Amnesty International and Welcome to Australia are recommending guiding principles for the new Community Support Program (CSP). This will enable members of the Australian community to sponsor visas for refugees who wish to rebuild their lives in Australia. 

FIND OUT MORE

IMMIGRATION DETENTION VISITOR EXPERIENCES

The Refugee Council of Australia is collating information on how the new detention visiting procedures are impacting on being able to visit detainees. Your experiences can help advocate for better visiting experiences

FIND OUT MORE

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CHANGES TO SUPPORT SERVICES FOR PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM

Program Partners

Refugee Council of Australia

Red Cross Australia 

Up to 12,000 people seeking asylum in Australia may be at risk of losing core services and financial support due to Government changes in the Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS).  Charities are already struggling to support destitute asylum seekers, but this level of destitution will be unprecedented.

Read about why this is a deep concern for people seeking asylum as well as Churches and Charities. You CAN take action to support.

Background

Up to 12,000 people seeking asylum in Australia may be at risk of losing core services and financial support due to Government changes in the Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS).

The SRSS is a regular payment to help with basic living costs for those who live in Australia and are waiting for a decision about their immigration status.  The current SRSS program has different levels of support (‘bands’), depending on the circumstances of the person on the program.

In the past 6 months this program has been drastically reduced leaving many people with no form of financial or service assistance.  Charities and food banks around the country have reported a significant increase in the presentation of people seeking asylum who are destitute as a result of the reduction of services.

The Red Cross who has been a provider of services for asylum seekers for 25 years and is the largest provider in the country of SRSS has not had its contract renewed. There are fears that the number of people who will become destitute is only going to rise placing extraordinary pressure on charities and welfare agencies around Australia.

ACRT will join the Refugee Council of Australia, the ASRC and others to campaign for the restoration of key support services for asylum seekers in the belief that;

No person lawfully residing in Australia should be forced into destitution through the removal of access to financial and housing supports. 

Currently, there is no agency in Australia funded by Government to work with this specific group of people.  They are surviving on emergency handouts from a range of charities, and living with friends or community members, often in vulnerable or unstable conditions.

Why are people being removed from basic financial supports?

‍There are two main categories of people who have been removed from financial assistance after seeking Australia’s Protection. The first situation is people who have had their financial, casework and/or counselling support cancelled due to a range of reasons which may include: ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍

• Sending money to family overseas from the allocation of their SRSS financial support which has totalled more than $1,000 in a 12 month period.
• Having been assessed as ‘job ready’ in regard to their fitness to work and will be expected to find work.
• A breach of the code of conduct for Bridging Visa holders living in the community through minor infringements.
• People who have arrived by plane, and are ineligible for SRSS until their substantive (eg. tourist, student, partner) visa has expired, even if financial circumstances change (eg. For reasons of family violence, loss of assets back home etc.)

Why is this a challenge?

People who seek asylum in Australia often have family left behind who they are desperately worried about.  Although the allocation of 89% of a standard Centrelink payment is not much, there are times when people support each other to save as much as they can for their families who may be in desperate circumstances. For the Australian Government to tell them what to do with their own money and then punish them if they do support family overseas, is undignified and potentially a breach of privacy.

Being able to work is often a great desire for asylum seekers and refugees.  Working not only brings financial benefits but has significant social capital and can improve the self-confidence of a person living in a new culture.  However, there are many challenges for newly arrived individuals in gaining employment that go beyond a simple assessment of being ‘job ready’ by a generalist employment service.

Some of these challenges include a lack of recognition by many employers of work experience overseas. Without Australian based work experience many people find it difficult to secure employment.  A lack of proficient language skills, bias or discrimination on racial or religious grounds or a lack of understanding of the Bridging Visa system can all contribute to an inability to secure employment. Whilst a person may be considered to be ‘job ready’ by a generalist employment service, securing employment is a whole other challenge.  Removing people from financial support merely because they are considered ‘job ready’ can mean a person will be destitute for an extended time before securing employment to support themselves and their family. Furthermore, the compounding stressors of being destitute can further prevent a person from securing employment due to impacts on their mental health. The second group are people whose claim for protection has been considered ‘finally determined’ by Home Affairs.  This means they have not been recognised as a refugee.  The policy of removing the financial means to live from this group of people has a long history, having been in place for many years. ‍ Home Affairs considers a person finally determined when:

• a person was refused the grant of the visa and has not sought merits review of that decision within the period allowed to seek merits review; or
• the Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA) or the Administrative Appeals Tribunal have affirmed the decision to refuse to grant the visa; or
• a person has been refused the grant of the visa and that decision cannot be reviewed at the IAA as they are an excluded  applicant.

Why are we concerned about people being removed from SRSS?

The situations that lead to people being removed from SRSS and therefore all financial supports mean people can be destitute in the community for months at a time, or even years before their situation is resolved.

It is predicted that overall in the so called ‘legacy caseload’ there could be up to 12,000 people who will be removed from financial assistance over the coming 3 years. This level of destitution for asylum seekers is unprecedented and will bring considerable challenges for support and advocacy.  Much of the burden will fall on faith based agencies, churches and charities to try to support.

The Australian Christian Churches Taskforce disagrees with this policy and believes that Government should not be removing essential supports whilst people still have legal status in Australia.  Furthermore, the Government should not be dictating the personal and lawful affairs of asylum seekers people seeking asylum who are already in a distressful situation including punishing them for their personal decisions.

However, we are also aware that creating change may take some time.  In the meantime we are concerned that these people do find a safe place to live and basic supports.  The ACRT campaign #dignitynotdestitution will focus on advocacy to change the policy but also encouraging individuals and churches to host asylum seekers who may find themselves destitute until their situation changes.  Whilst we do not consider that the churches and charities should have to fill the gap of this cruel policy, we also recognise that we cannot stand aside and allow people to become destitute in our own community. ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍

Evidence base #dignitynotdestitution

Lack of income raises immediate concerns for any person in the community.  The result of destitution can include including homelessness, poor physical and mental health and nutrition, as well as social isolation. At a crucial time where a person who has sought protection is trying to deal with the trauma of their flight from their home country and the uncertainty of a safe future, the compounding impact of destitution can be devastating.

The impact of destitution on asylum seekers health, welfare and capacity to participate in their immigration process was acknowledged by the then Department of Immigration, when the forerunner of the SRSS program (the Community Care Pilot) was first created in 2009.

When health and welfare issues are stabilised, clients are better able to think clearly, exercise choice and participate in resolution of their immigration status.

A UK study on the nature of coping with destitution notes that even when people seeking asylum can find ways to support themselves outside of formal employment, many of the relationships formed or transactions negotiated are ultimately unequal in power and therefore dis-empowering and potentially harmful.

“Some relationships are overtly transactional, with destitute asylum seekers providing childcare, cooking and/or housework, and sometimes sex, in exchange for meals, cash, shelter, or other daily necessities”.

In Australia a number of agencies who work with those facing destitution also note that the context is precarious and can involve exploitation, violence and abuse on a range of levels.

A Hotham Mission study on asylum homelessness noted:

“Their [asylum seekers'] unfamiliarity with the service system and Australian culture makes them especially vulnerable to exploitation by unregulated crisis accommodation facilities and unscrupulous tenants residing there. Associated issues such as violence, racial intimidation and abuse or theft can further traumatise asylum seekers with vulnerabilities.”

If the Government really is interested in asylum seekers resolving their immigration status as quickly as possible, forcing people into destitution is analogous to this aim.  As the Community Care pilot found in 2009, stable health and subsistence for asylum seekers is the best way to achieve an expedient resolution of immigrations status whilst providing the dignity that all people deserve.

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