Our defining moments
Please join us in looking back at our biggest achievements and defining moments.
ASRC MARKS 25 YEARS
- ASRC turns 25, having supported more than 26,000 people seeking asylum and their families in the last 25 years.
- Let Them Stay for Good campaign demands permanency for around 700 people medically evacuated from Nauru and PNG, including Australian-raised children.
- ASRC responds strongly to the Albanese Government’s new ban on Iranian visitor visa holders from entering Australia in response to the war in Iran.
FIGHT FOR PERMANENCY
- UN Human Rights Committee rules that Australia offshore detention violates international human rights treaty.
- ASRC launches a federal election campaign calling on people to Vote with Refugees as pressure increases to provide permanent protection to refugees in our community.
- Senate inquiry into offshore detention is established.
- Albanese Government strikes secret deportation deal to Nauru amid whistleblower reports exposing corruption in detention facilities on Nauru. First person deported from our community to Nauru
END OF THE FAST TRACK SYSTEM
- Legislation abolishes flawed Fast Track processing and appeal bodies, establishes the Administrative Review Tribunal.
- Home is Here campaign demands permanent visas for 8,500 people trapped in limbo by Fast Track; refugees lead a 100-day protest in front of the Department of Home Affairs office in Melbourne and other cities.
- Albanese Government passes three brutal bills, legislating expansion of offshore detention, deportations and entry bans.
- ASRC shifts from a welfare-based to a human rights-based service model.
LANDMARK HIGH COURT RULING AND ORGANISATIONAL RESTRUCTURE
- High Court rules indefinite immigration detention unlawful (NZYQ case); around 300 people are released into the community.
- Huge advocacy win as Albanese Government grants permanent protection to 19,000 people waiting for up to a decade on temporary visas.
- A group of Tamil and Iranian women walk from Melbourne to Canberra demanding permanent visas for people in Fast Track limbo.
- Albanese Government evacuates the last remaining refugee from Nauru in June, resumes transfers to Nauru just a few months later.
- Christmas Island detention centre is emptied.
- Facing a historic funding crisis, ASRC launches the Save the ASRC Appeal.
- First ASRC’s Journeys Café opens.
REFUGEE RESOURCE HUB OPENS
- Nades, Priya, Kopika and Tharnicaa return to Biloela after the successful #HometoBilo campaign.
- ASRC launches a nation-wide campaign urging people to Vote with Refugees in the 2022 election.
- After extensive community pressure and refugee-led advocacy, Melbourne’s Park Hotel onshore detention centre closes and Medevac refugees are released into community.
- ASRC’s Refugee Resource Hub opens in Dandenong (later renamed ASRC Dandenong), co-locating multiple support services to serve people seeking asylum in the area.
- Action for Afghanistan campaign results in Morrison Government announcing 16,500 additional places for people from Afghanistan.
ASRC CELEBRATES 20 YEARS
- ASRC turns 20, having supported 20,000 people seeking asylum and their families in the last 20 years.
- #TimeForAHome alliance of 160 organisations and networks delivers a 36,923-signature petition to Labor, Greens and crossbench MPs.
- Morrison Government ends offshore processing in PNG, abandoning refugees exiled in 2013.
- Following the fall of Kabul, ASRC rallies to support the community from Afghanistan and calls for 20,000 additional humanitarian visas.
- ASRC publishes Seeking Asylum: Our Stories, featuring first-hand accounts of people with lived experience of seeking asylum.
#TIMEFORAHOME CAMPAIGN AND PANDEMIC RESPONSE
- ASRC launches #TimeForAHome Campaign demanding release and resettlement of people seeking asylum and refugees held in indefinite detention.
- ASRC leads efforts to successfully block legislation banning mobile phones and other personal items in immigration detention facilities.
- Medevac refugees are relocated from Mantra Hotel to Park Hotel, Melbourne.
- During strict COVID lockdowns, ASRC keeps its doors open and delivers groceries and meals to hundreds of people seeking asylum.
- ASRC joins over 180 civil society organisations calling on Morrison Government to extend critical COVID-19 support to temporary visa holders.
- Working for Victoria Initiative enables the ASRC to employ 106 people seeking asylum as critical workers.
- Community Advocacy and Power Program (later renamed Refugee Leadership Program) launches to train people with lived experience to become powerful advocates.
MEDEVAC LEGISLATION
- Historic Medevac legislation is passed, with 200 refugees transferred from Nauru and PNG to Australia for medical treatment; re-elected Morrison Government repeals legislation 8 months later.
- Medevac refugees are detained in Mantra Hotel, Melbourne and other sites across the country.
- ASRC’s inaugural Feast for Freedom campaign launches.
- ASRC receives Blueprint for Free Speech’s Special Recognition Award for exposing mistreatment of people seeking asylum in offshore detention.
#KIDSOFFNAURU COALITION SUCCESS
- #KidsOffNauru campaign collects more than 170,000 signatures on a letter to Parliament; more than 350 people, including all children and their families, are safely evacuated from Nauru.
- Community mobilises after Australian Border Force forcibly removes the Nadesalingam family from Biloela.
COVERT MANUS ISLAND VISIT
- Turnbull Government withdraws services, including water and power, at the Manus Island detention centre, leading to a standoff and protests as hundreds of men refuse to leave.
- ASRC covertly visits Manus Island exposing brutal conditions.
- ASRC assists 100+ people seeking asylum to lodge Temporary Protection Visa applications ahead of government deadline.
- ASRC launches #RightTrack campaign to shift public discourse around people seeking asylum.
15 YEARS OF ASRC AND #LETTHEMSTAY CAMPAIGN
- ASRC turns 15, having supported 12,000 people seeking asylum and their families in the last 15 years.
- #BringBackAsha stand-off at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane ends with family released into community detention.
- #LetThemStay campaign launches to stop deportation of 267 medically evacuated people seeking asylum; tens of thousands of people across the country join the campaign and all families are released into community detention.
- ASRC visits Christmas Island and collaborates on a report on detention conditions.
- Inaugural ASRC Telethon launches on World Refugee Day, 20 June.
SPOTLIGHT ON OFFSHORE DETENTION
- #BringBackAsha and #KidsOut campaigns launch to stop sending children to detention on Nauru and release all 112 children in detention.
- Abbott Government announces 12,000 additional humanitarian places for refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq.
- ASRC launches Words that Work research, reframing the way people seeking asylum are talked about.
- ASRC launches Food Justice Truck to deliver quality fresh produce to people seeking asylum.
- ASRC launches Youth Action Project, mobilising 900 young advocates for people seeking asylum.
RETURN TO FOOTSCRAY AND MANUS ISLAND TRAGEDY
- Death of Reza Barati on Manus Island sparks nationwide protests; ASRC partners with Get Up to arrange Light the Dark vigil.
- Australian Human Rights Commission launches inquiry into children in immigration detention.
- ASRC returns to Footscray on 1 May after 39 working bees are held with 680 volunteers donating $1 million worth of their time to get the premises in Nicholson Street ready.
- ASRC’s Innovation Hub is established.
- ASRC’s Dandenong Centre opens to provide English classes and employment services.
- Volunteer information night at Melbourne Town Hall is attended by 1,200 people.
- ASRC’s Human Rights Law Program wins Law Institute of Victoria’s Award for Community Legal Organisation of the Year.
PNG SOLUTION AND OPERATION SOVEREIGN BORDERS
- Rudd Government announces that no people seeking asylum who arrive by boat after 19 July 2013 are to settle in Australia.
- Newly elected Abbott Government announces Operation Sovereign Borders policy (‘stop the boats’).
- ASRC launches national Hot Potato campaign: van tours Victoria, NSW and Queensland, serving hot potatoes to debunk myths about people seeking asylum.
- ASRC Cleaning social enterprise is founded.
OFFSHORE PROCESSING REINSTATED
- ASRC provides evidence and submission to Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers.
- Gillard Government reinstates offshore processing.
- Nauru and Manus Island detention centres reopen.
ASRC’S 10th ANNIVERSARY
- ASRC turns 10, having supported 7,000 people seeking asylum and their families in the last 10 years.
- ASRC’s 23 programs are supported by 34 staff and 700 dedicated volunteers.
- Founder and CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis is awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM).
- ASRC stages Not Just My Story theatre production at St Martins Arts Centre.
- ASRC collaborates with Indigenous artists on A New Australian Story at the Light in Winter Festival.
SHIFT TO COMMUNITY DETENTION
- Gillard Government announces transfer of families and unaccompanied minors from immigration detention to community detention.
- Victorian Government provides public transport concessions and free TAFE places for people seeking asylum.
- ASRC stages Journey of Asylum - Waiting theatre production at Trades Hall.
END OF UNFAIR PRACTICES
- Rudd Government abolishes Detention Debt.
- 45-day rule, which denied health care and work rights to people seeking asylum who did not apply for protection within 45 days of arriving in the country, is abolished.
- ASRC coordinates support for people seeking asylum after Homeless World Cup and World Youth Day.
END OF OFFSHORE PROCESSING AND TPVs
- Australia’s offshore processing regime ends, Temporary Protection Visas are abolished and Nauru detention centre closes.
- ASRC launches campaign against Detention Debt, a policy that requires immigration detainees, including people seeking asylum and refugees, to pay the cost of their detention.
- Run 4 Refugees annual campaign launches.
SLEEP-OUT PROTEST
- ASRC holds a sleep-out protest at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship as part of Just a Fair Go campaign highlighting poverty and homelessness.
- Victorian Government grants free emergency ambulance access for people seeking asylum.
FIVE YEARS OF ASRC
- ASRC marks 5 years, having supported 3,000 people seeking asylum and their families in the last 5 years.
- Right to Work campaign launches.
- ASRC’s Foodbank in West Melbourne is redesigned for supermarket-style access.
ASRC CATERING LAUNCH & IRAQI VISA SUCCESS
- Hundreds of people seeking asylum are released into community detention.
- Iraqi Permanent Visa campaign secures permanency for nearly all Iraqi Temporary Protection Visa holders.
- Victorian Government mandates free emergency public hospital access for all people seeking asylum.
- ASRC releases Dumped at the Gate report highlighting lack of support for refugees released from detention.
- ASRC Catering social enterprise is founded.
MOVE TO WEST MELBOURNE
- ASRC relocates to West Melbourne; Employment Program launches.
- ASRC partners with churches and community groups lobbying for release of detained people seeking asylum into community.
ASRC SUPPORTING 1,000 PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM
- Protests erupt at immigration detention centres at Woomera and Baxter, leading to Woomera closure.
- ASRC’s three staff and over 250 volunteers are supporting 1,000 people seeking asylum.
- Counselling, home tutoring and first employment services launch.
- ASRC receives the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission’s Community Award.
- Charity CD For Those Who’ve Come Across the Seas is released to raise funds for the ASRC, featuring a stellar lineup of Australian artists
FIRST SPECIALISED PROGRAMS BEGIN
- ASRC launches first specialised health clinic, legal clinic, English classes, casework, friendship program and daily meals.
- Visits to people detained in Maribyrnong Detention Centre lead to the establishment of ASRC’s Detention Rights Advocacy Program.
- ASRC opens a second drop-in centre in Thornbury.
ASRC IS FOUNDED & PACIFIC SOLUTION CRISIS
- ASRC opens on 8 June as a TAFE student-run foodbank in Footscray, providing essential food and supplies to people seeking asylum.
- MV Tampa rescues hundreds of people seeking asylum off Christmas Island; Howard Government refuses to let the ship dock.
- Howard Government implements “Pacific Solution” in response to the Tampa crisis, transferring people seeking asylum to Nauru and Manus.
- SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat capsizes close to Christmas Island; 353 people seeking asylum, mostly women and children, die.
- Howard Government falsely claims people seeking asylum on another boat threatened to throw “children overboard”.
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