Voices for freedom

Experience our unique perspectives, support our advocacy and celebrate our voices!

We are people from refugee backgrounds advocating for human rights and respect for multicultural communities, including people seeking asylum.

Our voices are powerful and important because of our unique lived experience and personal connection to challenges and achievements that come with seeking asylum and building life as new Australians.

Voices for Freedom is a digital space for our articles, photography, art and videos on topics of our choice.

    • 01 APR 19
    Why do they have to wait for years?

    Why do they have to wait for years?

    Imagine being locked up against your will for more than five years. How would you feel? This is the reality for refugees on Manus Island right now. I am a former refugee who spent 16 weeks in Curtin Immigration Detention Centre during the Howard era. The centre was horrible, barbaric, cruel and worse than prison.

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    • 14 MAR 19
    45 Days on Christmas Island

    45 Days on Christmas Island

    I was detained on Christmas Island in 2010 for 45 days. I came from Pakistan where I lived most of my life after my family and I fled civil war in Afghanistan. As a young Hazara man, I was then persecuted by state-funded terrorist groups and a religious portion of the community. My political views

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    • 05 MAR 19
    Abdul Aziz statement to the UN on Australia’s cruel offshore processing

    Abdul Aziz statement to the UN on Australia’s cruel offshore processing

    United Nations Human Rights Council, 40th session, February, March 2019 Oral statement by the Human Rights Law Centre Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Human Rights Defenders   Mr. President,   My name is Abdul Aziz. I would like to invite you all to think about your life over the

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    • 28 FEB 19
    The Australia I have come to love

    The Australia I have come to love

    Kindness is ingrained among Australian people. A quality that’s sorely missed in its national policy, writes Brisbane based advocate Kagi Kowa. As a young woman fleeing prosecution, seeking safety in a new country was the only option I had. My cultural background is tribal indigenous African from the Nuba Mountains, we are the Indigenous people of

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    • 12 FEB 19
    We wait for 2-5  years for urgent medical treatment

    We wait for 2-5 years for urgent medical treatment

    I am Aziz Abdul Adam and I have been indefinitely detained on Manus Island for six years. Thank you for taking action to get kids and their families off Nauru for urgent medical treatment. I am so happy they are safe in Australia now. I have seen 12 of my brothers lose their lives from

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    • 09 NOV 18
    Nothing about us, without us!

    Nothing about us, without us!

    As nine people finished Sydney’s Advocacy and Power Program (APP), six presented their journey’s of seeking asylum and building their live as new Australians at a special evening on Tuesday night.   “I want to tell you the story of why I’m here.” The evening kicked off with a story shared by two people fleeing

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