Tag Archives: Refugee

Love finds a way…

08 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Personal, refugees, Spirituality

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Protesters on the roof of the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, 2011 (from Wikimedia Commons)

Protesters on the roof of the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, 2011 (from Wikimedia Commons)

Hyperbole and one-up-man-ship often mark the national discourse where controversy is concerned. In the midst of the sloganeering and major political parties competing to see who can offer the greatest deterrent to “stop the boats,” are men, women and children detained in off-shore prisons awaiting their indefinite and uncertain fates.

On the reception of asylum seekers, the Church in this land is also divided. Immigration control vs humanitarian response to people in distress! The former suggests a pre-occupation with the concerns of empire, while the latter reflects the kernel of the focus of God’s realm. Our Lenten readings from the prophets, the gospels and the letters of Paul indicate as much.

So how does the follower of Jesus emulating the latter respond to opponents even within his/her camp. “With this mind,” says Paul as he launches into the Church’s well known and favourite credal hymn – the touchstone of what we’re all about in today’s Lenten text  Philippians 2:5-11.

The focus for all Christians, no matter what persuasion, even in the divisive asylum seeker debate is – serve one another with the mind and heart of Christ. This is what changes the world for the better.

The one who marches out of step…

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Personal, refugees, Spirituality

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

… may be the only one who is in step!

from Wikimedia Commons

from Wikimedia Commons

Isaiah 50:4-9a is one of the so-called Suffering Servant songs. Appropriated by the Early Church to describe the Passion of Jesus, it initially describes the despair and desolation of the people of Israel as they are led off in chains into Babylonian exile.  Suffering the indignity of oppression and humiliation, the composer nevertheless remembers who YHWH has called him to be – one who teaches that the glory of God is a person fully alive (if I may time machine Irenaeus back into the experience of the exiles!), for after all, this composer is a teacher of Israel.

The matter of another people in exile vexes me right now as the question of Australia’s imprisoned and hidden asylum seekers becomes ever darker and more sombre. The voices that seek to amplify their silenced voices are few and far between in the Australian population – such has been the success of politician and media mogul in demonising them. The role of the teacher is to call people to a heart and mind understanding of our true story against the popular myth that is designed for short-term gain.

The story of Israel, the Way of Jesus’ cross and the cry of asylum seekers seem to merge at this point. Isaiah’s poet clutches hope in the most dire of circumstances.

Let’s try for the same!

Refugees in the dark over security checks – Eureka Street

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by in Personal, refugees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

This article touches on a huge source of anxiety among refugees on bridging visas and living in communities such as ours. A High Court challenge is a flickering sign of hope that our Kafka-like systems will find an inch of redress. The toxic political polarisation that soaks our our waking moments, however, will take something more.

Refugees in the dark over security checks – Eureka Street.

Requiem for Shooty

02 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in international politics, Personal, refugees

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

 

Villawood Detention Centre, Sydney

Image by .M. via Flickr

Thomas Keneally, Australian author, has written an open letter to ‘Shooty’ whose despair under incarceration led to an untimely death. Read it at  Sri Lankan Asylum Seeker Commits Suicide in Villawood.

As a resident of the city that just hosted CHOGM as well as a refugee advocate who has just about run dry of “appalled” responses to our labyrinthine asylum seeker assessment regime, I experience Keneally’s piece opening up fresh reserves of focused anger and lament that our country has come to this. My previous post feted some of the positive aspects of CHOGM. Today’s post acknowledges the dark side. What might a Commonwealth of Nations that is at one under a charter of human decency require of repressive governments, both those that create the huge people movements of this era and those who fail to properly receive those seeking refuge?

How long before we have an inkling?

Related articles

Expedient decency

13 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in refugees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Christmas Island like a prison: Amnesty

Isn’t it funny how the best humanitarian outcome is seen as a government defeat? (See PM concedes defeat in asylum stand-off ) It could have been so different, with government leadership taking a principled stand rather than letting the opposition,  a fear frenzied section of the population and empire building bureaucrats seize control of the discourse. What many of us have been advocating all along – community based processing of refugees regardless of how they arrive, is now more likely to become the default standard for a while. Let’s hope asylum seekers are not punished by freshly conceived draconian measures as a result.

High Court quashes Malaysia deal

31 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in refugees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Parties to the Convention Relating to the Stat...

Image via Wikipedia

… but I fear it’s not time to break out the champagne yet.

My feeling right now is one of relief at expectations vindicated. The Malaysia deal was immoral even before it was illegal. Today’s High Court decision that effectively prevents the government from proceeding with the Malaysia refugee swapping deal presents at least one occasion where Australian law reveals, or at least, syncs with, a moral underpinning.

I have another feeling of trepidation. What next? Today’s decision could not have been unexpected by Immigration. What irons do they have in the fire for Plan B and Plan C that may yet erode the basic human rights for asylum seekers to have their claims heard in a country that has endorsed the UN Refugee Convention?

Or will the unimaginable occur  – that our political parties will clear the decks and engage some creative, compassionate and sustainable collaboration in working out a way forward in dealing with the issues that have led to a world refugee surge? Stranger things have happened!

(Map shows signatories to the UN Refugee Convention in green)

Related Articles

1 is too many

25 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by in refugees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Australia’s asylum seeker detention culture is very much under scrutiny.

The High Court deliberates whether it is in the government power to alleviate pressure on the system through a ‘people-swapping deal’ with Malaysia.The outcome of the case will also have an impact on some backup strategies for warehousing refugees in other off-shore centres.

And in a few days we will observe Refugee Sunday. Most of the rest of the world observed it on June 2oth, but for some reason it runs a little late here. But it is not untimely.

Here’s a reflective contribution from the Disciples of Christ 

Congregations that have resettled refugees in the past are encouraged to celebrate that ministry and the accomplishments of the refugees they have resettled. Congregations are also encouraged to reflect on all the thousands of refugees stuck in refugee camps around the world who are awaiting an opportunity for resettlement and a chance to begin their lives again.

The 2011 theme for World Refugee Day is “1 is too many.”

1 family forced to flee is too many;
1 refugee without hope is too many;
1 refugee returned to danger is too many;
1 refugee longing for home is too many;

1 child without a nationality is too many;
1 family without shelter is too many;
1 refugee denied a safe haven is too many;
1 child growing up in a camp is too many;

1 family torn apart by war is too many;
1 girl raped at gunpoint is too many;
1 refugee child behind bars is too many;
1 refugee without schooling is too many.

Appealing to the ‘better angels of our nature’

24 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Personal, refugees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

British people attach vinegar, when eating Fis...

Image by petitshoo via Flickr

As we head towards refugee Sunday, Eureka Street offers some worthy material for reflection, e.g. Improving the refugee debate – Eureka Street.

It well makes the point that multiculturalism, the so called bête noir of our times is really of little account. This reflects a lunch-time conversation from which I have just emerged, where a bunch of us good-solid-British-heritage-stocked fourth-and-fifth generationists were comparing our ancestries and remarking how much more mottled our lines were than we realised. The makeup of this country has been thus varied for the last 200 years. Certainly, the ruling class were decidedly British in demeanour if not ethnicity, but those they ruled  reveal a variety of cultural backgrounds. And in a land where Jack/Jill is as good as his/her master, the program is set for distinctions to either fade or be mutually celebrated. The politically manufactured zeitgeist of fear cannot and should not prevail given our collective story. But alas it has and it does but it need not. Just read this inspiring article in the same issue of Eureka street.

So one hopes that law interpreted by the High Court of Australia, as in the Malaysia case now awaiting determination, and the reasoned voices from the middle ground that are now being given some airplay, might begin to turn, or at least soften, the political perception of public opinion. Hope springs eternal!

What on earth are they thinking?

22 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in Personal

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

A hulk in Toulon.

Image via Wikipedia

Why can’t our government get it right with asylum seekers who arrive by boat?

The lawfulness of the disgraceful Malaysia deal is being tested before the full bench of the High Court today.

This morning’s headlines in the West Australian were like a breeze of fresh air through the stench of indifference and acrimony that usually surrounds this issue. A group of eminent Australians representing, among other professions, business and the arts, have called for a rethink of the detention strategies, advocating minimum holding for security and health checks and release into the community while asylum claims are ascertained. More humane, less expensive, win-win. They echo recent representations made by senior officials in Immigration to their political masters.

But how does our government respond ?  “Let’s build floating detention centres.” Have they completely lost the plot? What kind of blinkered thinking seeks to take us back to the time Britain used floating hulks to imprison its burgeoning underclass. The irony is that when this strategy became unwieldy transportation to the great south land was deemed the solution. That’s right – they were sent out here as “boat people.” Go figure! Granted these $150 million vessels are intended to deliver intercepted asylum seekers swiftly to unnamed off-shore locations – but really?

I guess things have to reach the zenith of the point of ridiculous before uncommon common sense can break through.