A Letter from Kamran

Friend,

I am worried.

I am a person seeking asylum and I am currently awaiting my refugee status from our government. To support me to do things like pay my rent, study and get help finding work, I have been receiving support through the Status Resolution Support Service (SRSS).

Right now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is overseeing one of the largest cuts to support for people seeking asylum that this country has ever seen. The SRSS provides people like me, with basic support to help us build our lives in the Australia.

In the coming months, we could see up to 15,000 people seeking asylum in our communities lose all their life-saving support. Basic living allowance, casework support, torture and trauma counselling – all could be lost. We need to let Prime Minister Turnbull know how bad this will be.

Can you take a moment during your lunch break today to write a hand-written letter to Prime Minister Turnbull inviting him to your house, workplace, school or community centre to explain the humanitarian crisis that is about to unfold?

I came to Australia with my family in 2013, fleeing persecution in Iran. I am so grateful for the safety and the freedom that I have been offered by Australia. But I can’t understand why Prime Minister Turnbull wants to make my family’s lives so uncertain and difficult now that we are here.

Many of my friends will not be able to afford their rent or be able to feed themselves. Some may become homeless. Many of them desperately want to find work, but need support to do so. We need Prime Minister Turnbull to know that the changes to the SRSS program will have devastating impacts on thousands of people – can you join us?

At the moment I am enjoying studying English and hope to study at university one day. I want to build my life and be part of my new community here in Australia. The changes to the SRSS program will punish me for doing this. It makes no sense. I need you to call on Malcolm Turnbull to stop these cuts and #ChangeThePolicy of calculated cruelty towards people like me. Support, not punishment, helps people thrive.

Yours in hope,

Kamran

(Kamran is a person who could be affected by the proposed changes to the SRSS program. For his safety, we have used a pseudonym)