Human Rights

1.    It is immoral that children seeking asylum are denied health care in Australia….but this is what the Howard government does each year to hundreds of asylum seeker children forced to live on Bridging Visa E’s with no access to Medicare.

2.    It’s denying people seeking asylum a fair go by not giving them the right to food…but this is what the Howard government does to thousands of people seeking asylum. On a bridging visa E you have no right to work or an income and are left to starve and beg to charities for your survival.

3.    A family should be able to be together…but for over1400 people who have been found to be refugees but granted only Temporary Protection Visas this is not possible, because they have no right to sponsor their family.

4.     No one should be denied the right to do an honest day’s work..but this is what the Howard government does to thousands of people seeking asylum each year by denying them the right to work on Bridging Visa E’s.

5.    It’s immoral to force people who seek asylum in Australia to become homeless and live in poverty…but this is what happens to most people seeking asylum because they have no access to Centrelink, public housing, settlement programs or Migrant Resource Centres due to Howard government policies.

6.    We are breaking the law in how we treat people seeking asylum in Australia…by the Howard Government having a policy of mandatory detention we are in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Refugee Convention.

7.    It’s a disgrace that when DIMA releases a person from a detention centre they just dump them in the community with no support or care…but this is what happens when people seeking asylum are released from detention.  They are often very unwell physically and mentally afters years in detention.  They are released with no plan for their care, no support to resettle and no follow up to check that they are ok.

8.    It’s not fair to place people in detention centres when they have broken no law…people seeking asylum break no law when they come here by boat but our government still locks them away.

9.    It’s just not right that people seeking asylum are at risk of being locked away in a detention centre for getting an education…but this is what will happen for many asylum seekers in the community on a Bridging Visa E who have no right to study and will be placed in detention if they are caught doing so.

10.    A person should not have to try to take their own lives before we let them out of a detention centre into community care..but each year many people seeking asylum only get released from a detention centre after they have tried to kill themselves, due to despair and feelings of hopelessness.

Sat Nov 18
 
Tickets are now on sale so time to get your table organised. Check out the ASRC website for more details about the evening and for the booking form.

There are five mothers having children in the next two months. We are having a film fundraiser on November 14th to raise some funds to helps mums buy items for their new borns.
 
Movie title: “No.2″
Date: November 14
Time: 7pm
Location: Cinema Nova
Cost: $15 concession/ $20 adult   AVAILABLE NOW !!!
 
For booking details please see the website www.asrc.org.au

Thursday Novemeber 2nd 6:30pm
 
This week’s Supporting Our Supporters program will be on this Thursday November 2nd. Volunteers are encouraged to come along to the sessions where you will have the opportunity to discuss your experiences of volunteering at the ASRC and gain support.

Message from Pamela Curr:
 
Tony Bourke, Labour Opposition spokesperson on Immigration has released a reccommendation that tthe TPV (Tempo be scrapped and all refugees be given permanent protection instead of having to prove themselves twice.
 
This would emable the 1400 people who are currently on TPV’s; and must wait for another 3 – 5 years to be reunited with their families; to settle earlier.
 
What you can do help this LABOUR proposal be adopted as policy?
 
RING Kim Beazley’s office
 
Tel: (02) 6277 4022
Fax: (02) 6277 8495
Emila: Kim.Beazley.MP@aph.gov.au
 
Electorate Office Contact:
Tel: (08) 9527 9377
Fax: (08) 9592 1361
 
and congratulate Labour on this proposal and urge them (nicely!) to make sure this becomes policy before the next election as it will help decide your vote!

Saturdays Oct 28 – Dec 16

The Asylum Seeker Welcome Centre in Brunswick is offering some fantastic FREE performing arts and music workshops from October 28th – December 16th at the Welcome Centre in Brunbswick.
 
The Welcome Centre would really like to encourage members of the ASRC to come along as they have some fantastic facilitators.
 
Workshops will be held every Saturday at the Brunswick Uniting Church from 2pm – 4pm. Refreshmnets will be provided and there is an opportunity for travel costs to be reimbursed.
 
Please encourage anyone you think may be interested to contact the Asylum Seeker Welcome Centre on ph. 9388 2459.

We have just learnt from DIMA that Minister Vanstone as of the 22nd of July 2006 had directed her Ministerial Intervention Unit to process and refer all cases to her within 90 days. Furthermore, that legal representatives are to be given only 14 additional days to submit further information from the date they make their initial request.

We are concerned about these changes for a number of reasons, there is firstly the fact that there was no consultation from the Minister or notification to organizations such as ourselves of such changes. Such quicker processing will place extraordinary pressure on our capacity to continue to assist so many people as we do at the humanitarian stage.

Furthermore, these changes need to be seen in light of a recent interview that Minister Vanstone gave last week to SBS where she made unsubstantiated claims that asylum seekers were deliberately dragging out their stay in Australia and even more concerning were her claims that they were engaging in sham marriages. She provided no evidence to support her claims. Furthermore, she spoke of tighter controls in the future and quicker processing times but it seems she already has implemented them without any notice or consultation.

We do not understand the push for tighter measures and fear they are punitive rather than seeking to promote a fairer legal process for asylum seekers. We already have an approval rate of Ministerial requests that hovers at around just 5% and we are concerned the push for such quick processing will only hinder asylum seekers prospects of humanitarian intervention.

The Humanitarian Intervention Unit is already underesourced and stretched, dealing with many thousands of complex cases and cases that often are awaiting further medical and mental health reports. Reports that within this new 14 day time frame will often not be possible to procure. Furthermore, it can often take a number of months before asylum seekers can obtain from all their community links the neccesary letters of support, reports, references ect. We are concerned their will be a pressure to just say no to most of these cases without adequate time to consider their merits so as to meet these imposed deadlines.

Evidence for such fears are well borne out by our experience in the last year of a new legal time limits whereby DIMA Onshore Protection Department must now decide all cases within 3 months of application for asylum. We have seen a noticeable increase in rejections of people claims for asylum and in particular without even being interviewed, to ensure the time limits are meet.

Whilst we support a more efficient and expedient processing of asylum seekers legal claims to not leave them in endless limbo, it should not be at their detriment and compromise their legal prospects which is what these changes appear to do.

Kon Karapanagiotidis
CEO
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Inc.

The Howard Government continues to show a fragrant disregard for international human rights laws.  Their continued use of offshore ‘processing centres’, Temporary Protection Visas, Bridging Visa E’s regime (that deny people the right to work and medicare and an income) and our Mandatory Detention policies are all breaches of key human rights conventions we are signatories to including the: Convention on the Rights of the Child, ICCPR and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  For example denying people the right to work, health and food is a fundamental breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  We need to be asking when will our government start upholding the laws that is has in principle agreed to be bound by?

The ASRC 5th Annual Trivia Night is on Saturday the 18th of November at the Collingwood Town Hall. A great night of fun, entertainment, trivia and delicious snacks. Its our one big fundraiser each year, please get behind it. We have Anne Phelan, Rachel Berger and Alan Brough as MC’s, gourmet finger food, great entertainment, silent auctions and ofcourse TRIVIA!!!

Click below for flyer and booking form

ASRC 5TH ANNUAL TRIVIA NIGHT

We are seeking to employ a full – time Fundraising Co – ordinator via a grant from the Pratt Foundation. We are re – advertising this position. Applications close Monday the 13th of November. Please click below for Position Description and please send out to your networks.