These individuals are a fraction of the bigger picture. Over the past 70 years, 800,000 Australians who were once refugees have helped grow this country. Research by the Refugee Council of Australia, commissioned by the department of immigration and citizenship, highlights this fact. Despite the instability and set-backs to education experienced by refugees, the net economic contribution of humanitarian entrants has been positive.
“Australia’s refugee program includes people of all educational backgrounds, from those whose education has been seriously disrupted by conflict and persecution to those who come with degrees, masters and doctorates,” RCOA’s chief executive, Paul Power, said. The contribution of refugees in other areas of Australian life is incalculable. Refugees have opened restaurants and small businesses, produced world-acclaimed art and music, and continue to mould Australia’s rich cultural history and modern landscape.
Refugee Week is an opportunity to celebrate the contribution and courage of refugees. From Sunday June 19 to Saturday June 25, communities, organisations and individuals will come together to celebrate the best aspects of our nation’s welcome of refugees, frankly acknowledge unjust treatment of asylum seekers and refugees and commit to working together to ensure that we do better.
RCOA is encouraging individuals and organisations to celebrate a unified Refugee Week based around the theme ‘With courage let us all combine’, taken from the second verse of the Australian national anthem. This theme provides a platform to promote the valuable contribution refugees make to Australian society and facilitate a better understanding between different communities and encourage successful integration, enabling refugees to live in safety and to continue making a valuable contribution to Australia.
It is also unique opportunity for us all to experience and celebrate the rich diversity of refugee communities through theatre, music, dance, film and other events which take place all over Australia and highlight the aims of the Week. Refugee Week is an umbrella participatory festival which allows a wide range of refugee community organisations, voluntary and statutory organisations, local councils, schools, student groups and faith-based organisations to host events during the week.
Refugee Week also provides an opportunity for us all to take a stand – to embrace and embolden the courage that refugees have displayed. The current situation is morally, legally and financially untenable. Off-shore detention robs people of their dignity and basic human rights. Australia’s detention programs in Naura and Manus Island is based on deterrent tactic that directly contravene United Nations covenants and international law. Australia continues to turn boats back at sea, return refugees to persecution and, often times, their deaths. Vulnerable children and women are exposed to sexual assault and exploitation. Moreover, two people have set themselves alight in protest.
These policies have been denounced around the world. Worse, Australia has actively encouraged other nations to do the same. This approach will see refugees find fewer and fewer places of safety, the world will see more despair, more desperate people undertaking dangerous journeys and more deaths.
“Australia is alone in the world in having policies of mandatory indefinite detention for people seeking asylum, offshore processing and the forcible return of asylum seeker boats. The continued detention of children, in particular, is a source of international embarrassment,” RCOA chief executive officer Paul Power said.
“The opprobrium Australia has endured in its human rights performance review from our peers around the world shows how far Australia has slipped with our insular, unsustainable approach to vulnerable people who need our help.”
This continues because of the heinous and endemic politics of fear. Both sides of politics are tainted by these oppressive and inhumane policies that undermine Australia’s liberal foundations. The unity and value of the individual has been displaced by a strategy based on the ignoble expendability of life.
It is time for this to end. What is needed solidarity, compassion and a productive political environment that values the lives of refugees and the contribution they make to Australia life. To move to the right side of history, Australia must recognise that international refugee challenge is not an Australia-only problem. A regional approach is needed.
Communities across Australia can act now. Give your support to the proposal for an Inner West Refugee Welcome Centre, donate to the Asylum Seeker Centre, grab a coffee at Parliament on King, and participate in the Refugee Week launch and events. Past events have included football tournaments, public talks, exhibitions, music and dance festivals, theatre projects and film screenings.
Refugee Week is an important opportunity for asylum seekers and refugees in your community to be seen, listened to and valued. It is an opportunity for us all to exercise our democratic power, to build a stronger nation that gives freedom to people fleeing persecution, a nation that embraces them as productive members of our democracy.
