FIRST REFUGEES FROM SYRIAN CONFLICT HAVE ARRIVED IN VICTORIA. THEY ARE IRAQIS.

Syria's children - and Syria's people - ARE precious in God's sight

 

Dear Friends,

Like most of you, we are heartbroken by all the news we have seen in recent days as Syrians have been forced to flee their home in search of safety.  What can we say other than our broken old world truly needs our Saviour Jesus?

Today, we have launched a call to our Immigration Minister, urging him to give real and practical assistance to those in need on behalf of all Australians.  In partnership with others working in the asylum seeker and refugee space, we have called on Mr Dutton to both accept an emergency intake of Syrian refugees and to allocate significant financial assistance to the United Nations for their work addressing this global crisis.

We believe that our call echoes the heart of our God, who always hears the cry of the oppressed and who is the author of all peace.

Will you please stand with us, as we call on Mr Dutton and pray that he would have the courage to lead a national response to this tragedy that is marked by compassion, generosity and a profound sense of the value of every single human life?

And would you please take the time to share this email and the petition with those in your world who also have a heart to see God’s justice reign here on earth?

With thanks for your support, as always,

From Kylie, Tim, Justin, Jarrod and all the Common Grace team

Common Grace
http://www.commongrace.org.au/ -=-=-

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Another "NO" added to Tony Abbott's repertoire

Tony Abbott unmoved by Liberal calls for more Syria refugee help #thumbsdown http://t.co/zf9KH92fGA

— Advocacy at St Pauls (@StPaulsVoice) September 5, 2015

Don't believe the propaganda or the lack of information: some people have been counting ... and the boats have NOT stopped

Francesca Agosti

23 hrs

SCOTT MORRISON MAY GLOAT BUT ASYLUM SEEKERS' BOATS HAVEN'T REALLY STOPPED by Sunili Govinnage

Two facts emerge as the UNHCR meets in Geneva to look at protection for refugees at sea: more people than ever are fleeing their country by boat, and deterrence doesn’t stop them.

For all the slogans and military operations, over 54,000 people have boarded boats across the Indian Ocean this year, with around 20,000 in just the two months of October and November. As much as Scott Morrison may gloat, the boats haven’t really stopped.

The point you won’t see on any media release or hear at a doorstop press conference is this: even if people haven’t drowned on the way to Australia, they’ve still drowned. Because people fleeing countries in the region are still getting on boats.

There are many inconvenient facts for those who won’t stop talking about stopping the boats. But perhaps the facts are not so bothersome if they aren’t on the nightly news. After all, if an asylum seeker drowns well enough away from Australian territorial waters, will there be a leadership challenge today? And have you seen Julie Bishop’s broach?

For the rest of us, here are some details.

According to the UNHCR report on Irregular Maritime Movements in South-East Asia, over 50,000 people set sail just from the Bay of Bengal area in January-November 2014. The smugglers operating in the region move people who are trafficked as well as those paying for passage outside of legal migration channels. The latter includes people such as ethnic Rohingya who do not have any nationality (and therefore no official travel documentation) and have a long history of persecution and discrimination by the Burmese government.

The UNHCR estimates that around 21,000 people have departed from the Bangladesh-Burmese maritime border in the two months of October and November 2014. About 10% were women, and around one-third of arrivals interviewed by UNHCR in Thailand and Malaysia were minors. The numbers for October 2014 are a marked increase (37%) from the year before.

And not all the deaths at sea are merely from drowning, according to the report:

“One in every three interviewees said at least one other passenger on their boat died en route; one in every 10 said 10 or more people died on board. Deaths were attributed to severe beatings by the crew, lack of food and water, illness, and heat.”

Globally, around 350,000 people have risked it all by taking a boat this year. On 10-11 December 2014, UNHCR is hosting a meeting looking specifically at protection at sea. The non-governmental organisations taking part have recommended, among other things, that to implement effective protection and ensure safety at sea, it is vital to “address ‘route causes’ and ‘root causes’ of forced and dangerous migration”.

UNHCR notes that these reasons for irregular movement include: conflict and war, protracted refugee situations, statelessness, the absence or inadequacy of protection systems, family separation, poverty and economic inequality.

What is notably absent from all the recommendations to “stop the boats” from these experts is deterrence, which in Morrison’s parlance is also known as “taking the sugar off the table”. This was of course the honourable minister’s reasoning last month for reducing the number of refugees Australia would resettle from Indonesia and banning those who registered with UNHCR in Indonesia after 1 July 2014 from ever getting to Australia.

Sweet though that poison may be (and poisonous is certainly how one can characterise the way Australia treats those who come across the sea), no refugee is paying a people smuggler for any sort of benefit other than getting the hell out of the hell they were in.

At the opening of the UNHCR meeting yesterday, the High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said, “You can’t stop a person who is fleeing for their life by deterrence, without escalating the dangers even more”.

So what would work to actually stop people getting on boats? Again, according to the NGO recommendations, practical solutions for preventing irregular migration by sea include:

- More opportunities for legal migration

- Cooperative international agreements by states to provide more safe-havens for asylum seekers, e.g., through expanded UNHCR resettlement programmes; and

- Migration and asylum policies that recognise the benefits of migration and the contributions of migrants and refugees to the development of countries of destination and origin.

It’s ultimately pretty simple and obvious: the key to reducing irregular movement of people by dangerous ways is to increase pathways for properly managed, safe and regulated movement. It involves as Guterres said, “looking at why people are fleeing, what prevents them from seeking asylum by safer means”.

In practice, nobody is going to be able to neatly pack their passport and customs declarations cards in order to flee discrimination or state persecution in a “regular” way. Which is why, in the case of those people, the Refugees Convention set up a system for countries around the world to join forces to help them, and why the UNHCR’s resettlement process allows for countries to accept refugees who cannot return to where they fled. Both of which the Australian government is slowly but surely repudiating.

Opening and expanding legal channels for migration and the movement of asylum seekers and refugees will reduce the use of smugglers and black-market operations. But for various reasons it’s doubtful Australia would be checking off anything on that list of solutions any time soon.

And so the boats will sail on, but just a little further off Morrison’s horizon.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/…/scott-morrison-may-gloat-but-a…

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A vengeful Australian Government and Immigration Minister conspire to keep a father and son apart and imprisoned.

Anglican Parish of Gosford

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ AND SHARE……

There is no greater example of the cruelty of our immigration system gone crazy than Hadi and his son Amirali.

Hadi and Amirali are the sole survivors of a family of five. Two years ago this family, seeking safety and refuge, attempted to travel to Australia by boat. Tragically their boat broke up at sea and Hadi's wife, eight year old daughter, ten month old baby boy and brother all drowned.

After managing to get his son to Australia, Hadi was incorrectly accused of people smuggling, had his son removed from him, and endured the torture of waiting for a trial; a trial which proved to be a benchmark case in that it exposed flawed police procedure.

Hadi was exonerated.

That was four months ago. Hadi is still detained at Villawood, separated from his son, who grieves the loss of both his parents every day.

When will we take responsibility for the human rights abuses our government tries to persuade us are proper government procedure? When will we regain our national heart that once beat so loudly for compassion and justice?

When will Amirali get his dad back?

Please email Tony Najdov, director of Immigration Case Managers and voice your concerns about the welfare of this little boy and his dad. toni.najdov@immi.gov.au

Thank you,
Fr Rod