I have met people who have the choice between persecution in their home country or flight. They have come here to ask us for ASYLUM.

Their  hope is that Australia who has signed the United Nations Human Rights Charter will offer them refuge. Their wish is to be accepted, settled, find work, live in peace and contribute to Australia.

Who are Asylum Seekers?

Taken from the UNHCR Website

The term asylum-seeker is often confused with the term refugee. An asylum-seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee and seeks international protection from persecution or serious harm in their home country. Every refugee is initially an asylum-seeker, but not every asylum-seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee. While they are waiting for their claim to be accepted or rejected, they are called asylum-seekers.

The term asylum-seeker contains no presumption either way - it simply describes the fact that someone has lodged the claim for asylum. National asylum systems are there to decide which asylum-seeker actually qualifies for international protection. Those judged through proper procedures not to be refugees, nor to be in need of any other form of international protection, can be sent back to their home countries.

The efficiency of the asylum system is a corner stone in this process. If it is fast, fair and efficient, each asylum-seeker who is indeed a refugee will be granted refugee status, while those who are not in need of international protection, will not wrongly benefit from it.

This blog invites you to hear some of their stories and then join us in advocating for a fair go for these our brothers and sisters in distress.

• Ali spent too long in detention. He came to Australia to escape reimprisonment for past political activity in his home country. He was in detention and medicated for depression for many months. Now that he is in the community he cannot shake the persistant nightmares that disturb his sleep.

Working in detention

• Sunia had a doctorate and worked as a lecturer in a university in her home country. She has been in Australia on a protection visa for two years and was not allowed to work. Her qualifications are not recognised in Australia and now that she is allowed to work she is told either that she is overqalified or not well enough equipped to work in the Australian context. 

Job seeking and Centrelink

• Samia asked for ASYLUM because she was routinly tortured and raped in her home county. She arrived five years ago and has finally been granted her residence visa. She desperately want's to bring her three daughters to Australia because she want's them to escape a similar fate to her own. She has worked for $7 an hour since she arrived but desperately want's a job where she can earn enough to set aside some money to pay for the application to bring her girls here.

Safe to contribute

• Paul and his wife lived in and support an old lady who has Parkinson's desease while they awaited their visas. Now that they finally have them they are seeking work but so far they have been unsuccessful. When they go to charities to ask for assistance with food they are given the rotting left overs because they look forign.

 Let me contribute

Acceptance

Foodbank

• Essan has worked since he came to Australia. Last year he won the Refugee of the year award. He now finally has his residance visa. Unfortunately this process has taken several years and his relationship with his wife has suffered. His children desperately need their father and he has applied to bring them to Australia. Every day that he waits is excruciating for him and for them. 

I miss my family

 Where is your compassion?

Compassion Fatigue

A Worker's story- How do I respond to this woman’s need for Asylum?

The room has an old three quarter bed, a mattress on the floor with two cushions and one old wooden chair with a couple of garments hanging over the back. Along the wall opposite is a hot plate with one pot, sink with two cups a plate and knife, fork and two spoons and in front of a high window an old desk and on the desk a small TV set. Next to the desk is a door, which leads to a toilet and shower. These are the possessions gathered over the years in Australia. Samia is an asylum seeker who came to our rich country five years ago. She has been waiting for a residents visa these long years. With the visa she can work and perhaps bring her three children to Australia. This! is all she dreams of.

Today I am with Samia again but this time something is different. She wants to make sure that I understand completely and she says and her English is not good enough to be sure that I hear right.

And so I sit at one end of the old bedstead on a hard mattress covered with sheets and an old cotton doona and she sits at the other end of the bed propped against the wall. Between us is an Iphone and through the speaker comes an disembodied voice, this time it is for me in English. A short answer to a long question but one I did not expect. ‘I last saw my daughters five and a half years ago.’ I look across and see tears dripping from Samia’s chin. Her eyes stair past me and I begin to brim with empathetic tears. I cannot think of how to answer. I take a while and Samia and the disembodied voice wait patiently. ‘I am sorry Samia, I do not understand but I am sorry.’ The voice between us wavers as she says to me ‘I am sorry too’ and to Samia in Farsi. ‘She is sorry.’

‘One day’ says Samia ‘Insh Alla.’

‘Do you want to talk about it’ followed by a quiet echo in Farsi.

‘Perhaps next week.’

‘So have I heard?’

‘Yes you have heard, thank you.’

The interpreter cries and also says thank you and we switch off the Iphone.

‘Enough for today come next week please.’

‘I will. Same time next week?’  She nods I say goodbye and go.

What Samia needs is a chance.

  

How can I keep this up?

Policy