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Circle of Friends helps bring Afghani teacher and her daughters to safety

We are pleased to share some good news with the arrival of Afghani teacher Laila and her daughters in Adelaide last month. Their immigration to Australia was sponsored by Circle of Friends through the Community Support Program Visa where individuals within the community cover the relocation costs for refugees trying to establish themselves in Australia. The application was spearheaded by Mij Tanith and supported by other local Circle of Friends members. After many fundraising efforts they were able to raise the necessary funds of over $60 000 and submit paperwork to the Australia Government. What followed was many months of delays and hurdles before Laila and family were finally able to gain the Visa and make the journey to Australia.

You can read more of this story on ABC News ‘Afghan teacher migrates to Adelaide with five daughters after ‘huge’ community crowdfunding effort‘.

Well done to the Adelaide Circle of Friends group and all their supporters that made this possible and we all wish Laila and her children all the best as they adjust and settle into their new home.

Photo courtesy of IqbalStock on Pixabay

A Cry Went Up in the Desert: Documenting Woomera Detention Centre

The book ‘A Cry Went Up in the Desert’ provides a unique eye-witness account of the impact of the Australian Government’s policies towards asylum seekers and those who advocate for them over the period of late 1999 – 2000. These policies and actions sadly continue to reverberate and impact asylum seekers in Australia over twenty years later.

In this important book documenting the early stages of Woomera Detention Centre, editor Margaret Gunn has reproduced, with permission, a series of letters she received from  Rev Dr Tom Atherton of his attempts to advocate for people detained at Woomera.

The books editor Margaret Gunn has provided the following summary of the book:
In late 1999 the United Protestant Minister Rev Tom Atherton was living at Woomera and so saw first-hand the building of this centre and was at the receiving end of backlash against people who advocated for the people detained in the centre. At this time 800 or so American service-people were completing a rotation at the Woomera space research base when the detention centre began to be constructed in the area. Surprised by this new development, both the Rev Atherton and the local Catholic priest’s first response was to publicly ask the Minister for Immigration for air-conditioning in the 1950s brick huts on the Woomera town construction site which were to be used to house the initial 400 or so men, women and children from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

“The picture I have is of a prison-like enclave in the desert in which the 1,500 residents have rights which no one tells them about (right to legal advice, for example). They are involved in a process of evaluation of their refugee status but no one tells them about the process… and they have no idea when a decision will be made…” –  Rev Dr Tom Atherton, 13th June 2000

In response the Minister himself led the onslaught which enveloped Tom with the Minister of Immigration seeing the request for habitable accommodation being an unwelcome interference. This personal attack of exacerbated by Sydney shock-jock John Laws.

When Margaret wrote a letter of encouragement to Tom he responded and this began a 6-month exchange of emails where Tom documented confidentially his first-hand experience of doing what he could to help the detainees and guards at the detention centre.  Later Rev Atherton would say that Margaret’s letter of encouragement was the only positive letter he received amidst a torrent of hate-mail.

“I feel the need to tell this stuff confidentially to someone and you have been elected unopposed.” – Rev Dr Tom Atherton to Margaret Gunn, 25th May 2000

The 36 emails that Tom sent to Margaret were saved on her computer and recently she sought and received permission from Tom and his wife Judith to share them publicly.

As journalist Peter Mares writes of the resulting book:

“These important documents [are] a reference point for others, including future generations, to better understand, at a personal and visceral level, the pain and anguish inflicted by Australia’s immigration detention regime.”

‘A Cry Went Up in the Desert’ was published in 2023 and is available for purchase from the publisher MediaCom Education.

2024 SA Senior Australian of the Year awarded to Circle of Friends Member Meredith Evans

Circle of Friends congratulates Sister Meredith Evans who has been awarded the 2024 SA Senior Australian of the Year. Meredith Evans is a active and dedicated member of the Effective Living Centre Circle (Circle 111). We are pleased that her lifelong service to others has been recognised in this way.

As the Press release from Australian of the Year Awards reads:

“Sister of Mercy Meredith Evans has dedicated her life to helping the vulnerable and inspiring others to do the same.

Through her vocation, Meredith has provided kind, non-judgemental care and assistance to many – including refugees, young people, women experiencing homelessness, women exiting violent relationships and women leaving prison.

In 2019, Meredith established the South Australian division of Young Mercy Links – a network of young people passionate about social justice, advocacy and education.

She was also instrumental in re-establishing Justice for Refugees SA and the Young Christian Workers Movement in South Australia.  In 2014, Meredith partnered with like-mind people to start a new Circle of Friends in Adelaide, providing on the ground support for refugees.

Meredith’s care has extended abroad, engaging people to contribute to the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The service provides newly built homes for people with a landmine injury and their families.”

Where Are They Now? Snapshots of Success

Remembering people who lived in Inverbrackie Detention Centre, Alternative Place of Detention (APOD) near Woodside SA, 2011–2014 and in Pt Augusta Housing (APOD) at Ellis Close, 2012–2013.

Circle of Friends members visited people detained in Inverbrackie over the duration of its operation as a detention centre. Despite the shuffling of some people from Inverbrackie to Pt Augusta Housing APOD and then back to Inverbrackie, Circle of Friends members developed long-lasting friendships with the people they visited.

The detainees were asylum seekers who had arrived by boat at Christmas Island between 2009 – 2012. There were families with babies, toddlers and teenagers, and single people and grandparents. There were pregnant women, some alone, separated from their husbands by Immigration.

Our friends were from Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam. Some Tamil people had previously been detained in a hot and dusty detention centre at Leonora in outback Western Australia prior to arriving at Inverbrackie.

When Inverbrackie was closed some people were granted release on Community Detention visas in Adelaide and other cities. But many were transferred to Wickham Point Detention Centre in the swamps of Palmerston in the Northern Territory. This enormous prison-like centre of razor wire compounds and small rooms was purposely built to contain asylum seekers.  It was a huge shock for people transferred from the unfenced houses and open green grass of Inverbrackie.  We received calls from our friends who were transferred to this centre crying and asking us for help.

A few Tamil women and children were sent to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) housing compound in Sydney. Others who had been detained at Pt Augusta Housing from 2012 – 2013 were variously transferred to Darwin Airport Lodge Detention centre (cohort of young Vietnamese people) or Villawood IDC (particularly a cohort of 20 Sri Lankan Tamil men who remained in detention until 2016).  These sudden forced transfers at night or early in the morning, created immense distress.  I continued to visit people in Villawood IDC, and a few Circle of Friends members also visited our friends in Wickham Point IDC (and others in Yongah Hill IDC, Northam, Western Australia).

The people we supported now live in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane. Some have been granted permanent visas, others have temporary visas, some have short-term or long-term Bridging Visas as they are still being processed by Immigration or are appealing refusal decisions, and at least two families have been denied any documentation by Immigration/DHA.

Four single women, widows each with two or three children, are now living in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Three were granted permanent residence and are citizens.  One remains on a Bridging Visa.  All children are either at school, university or working.

The women are typically working in support roles in aged care. These brave mothers fled their homelands when their children were very young, crossed the sea, endured detention and when released they relocated to areas in Australia where friends lived. Their dreams of a safe future for their children have been achieved.

All those permitted to work eventually found employment or established businesses.  They brought to Australia a wide variety of skills, as school teachers; a teacher of traditional music and dance; university lecturers; farmers; a police officer; a spray painter; a construction manager; and musicians. Among them was a nanotechnology scientist; a beauty salon owner and an author.  Some women had only ever worked inside their homes.

To find work in Australia, many took up new occupations as barbers; labourers; truck drivers; café owners; laundry and factory workers, cleaners of parks, gardens and schools, a dental technician; carer and support workers; kitchen hands; a real estate agent; a paramedic; a security guard; a hospital porter and a postman. Others established their own businesses in industrial cleaning; house renovations and building; home maintenance and landscaping; home-made meal and delivery service; beauty salons; mobile market food stalls; security screen installation; fruit and vegetable wholesale and retail.

Some young people who were children in Inverbrackie and Pt Augusta managed to enrol in university through scholarships or after gaining permanent residence, and they are graduates in law, engineering, robotics, dental technology and medical science.

Life goes on – marriages, babies, careers, study, business.  Permanent resident visas are gradually being granted and every couple of weeks someone calls me, “Mum/Sister, I got PR!! When are you coming to see us?”.

– By Lesley Walker, Convenor of Circle 13 (Family of Four) and Circle 113 (Lesley’s Circle)

Another busy year for the Rapid Response Circle

Looking back on the 2022-23 Financial Year, Rapid Response Circle (110) has had another busy year,  directly assisting 28 individuals and 16 families and triaging 18 enquiries for help.  Unaddressed trauma was evident in  many people we helped. Sadly we have noticed an increase in referrals of women, often with children, escaping violent situations., with refugees from Syria we noted severe trauma manifested in health and behavioural issues.  Visa situations for many remained very complex and single men with no visa or income continued to appear.  Calls for help with utility costs increased and  it became significantly harder for those relying on $20 per day plus shopping cards to manage.  There are certainly no luxuries there with one smoker resorting to butts out of the bin.

The help we provide has included both direct financial assistance  and provision of household goods and the general support needed when settling into a new country. We have contributed towards living expenses for 27 individuals and 15 families. Of these, nine individuals and four families have needed ongoing support and five men occasional assistance to cover rent.  Thankfully most of the people we assist are also helped by other Circles with rent, bills, car, and phone expenses and four individuals have access to Foodbank.

On the practical side we assisted two women (one with only a sofa and  quilt), and one family, to set their homes up from scratch and a further three individuals needed significant financial and practical help over a short period.   Again we were thankful for the support provided in this by  other Circles and Adelaide Refugee Support volunteers.

We believe that the Government Settlement packages that are supposed to equip recipients with the basics needed for a household to function smoothly need review. To fill in the gaps from these settlement packages we provided warm bedding and clothes to a newly arrived Syrian family of nine.  They also needed large cooking pots and utensils and a second mobile phone so older children out learning English could communicate with a parent.  A second Syrian family of seven, here about 15 months, were in a similar position, but compounded by health problems  which necessitated the  father taking on the role of carer.  In  each instance new and  donated items and shopping cards to buy additional clothing were combined.

In the provision of household items we try where possible to source second hand items and this year these  included  a near new fridge, microwave, electric bed and bedding and walking frame.  While around 90 blankets and warm quilts, all with new or clean, donated covers, were delivered to help people stay warm over winter. Similarly, packages of good recycled and new warm clothing were distributed. We are grateful to Carol Collin from the Willunga Circle who collected more than half of these items.

Significant grants from the Suzanne Elliot Trust Fund and support from Burnside Uniting Church Cares as well as continual contributions from other Circles, individuals and small group donations have kept the Circle in a position to respond to  new and ongoing calls for help while adhering to its principle of “filling gaps” in services available. Thank you to all the donors for your generosity.  It really would not happen without you.

Tricia Dundon, Rapid Response Circle Convenor

UPDATE  Since this Report was written on Friday 8 September, a number of new referrals have been made including three families from Afghanistan in dire circumstances and desperate need.  Our Circle is down to our last $1,700 and all Circles are under financial  pressure.  Whether you can make a one off donation or commit to a regular amount, your contribution is urgently needed.  Thank you in advance for your help.

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