Inspired by Pope Francis’ call for Catholics to show compassion and care for refugees, schools and parishes in Melbourne’s west aim to collect 40,000 donated food items this year for the 620 people seeking asylum who access the ASRC Foodbank each week. The initiative started by Mark Northeast is called the Way of the West
Read moreThe clock is ticking. Yusuf is a refugee man in his 30s in the community on Nauru who appears to have suffered a serious cardiac event more than one month ago. He needs an urgent medical transfer to undergo life-saving treatment that is unavailable on Nauru, but the Australian Government is refusing to act. Medical
Read moreThey came for him in the middle of the night. In the early hours of Friday morning a man was dragged from his bed in the Broadmeadows MITA, cuffed and flown to Nauru. It is yet another distressing escalation in our Government’s endless attacks on people seeking asylum. “The deportation is the latest depravity to
Read more
In significant news for people seeking asylum in our community most states and territories have signed up to Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV) scheme and confirmed which postcodes are specified as regional areas. SHEV holders who work or study in a specified regional area for 3 ½ years may be eligible to have the bar lifted
Read more
Sabihe (Sabi) McDonald didn’t think she had a chance of winning the Refugee Champion Award at this year’s Friends of Refugees and Asylum Seeker Awards, but at the ASRC and throughout Melbourne’s refugee community, many agree she is a deserving winner. As Melbourne’s first Persian interpreter, Sabi quickly recognised her value in not only bridging
Read more
