By Charity Haynes
Visiting refugees in their homes has continued in 2021-2022 but we no longer visit the Villawood Detention Centre. Families have been helped in many ways, including rent assistance, paying for doctors bills & electricity accounts.
Highlights of visits include delicious lunches, seeing the progress of the children, several starting school for the first time & proudly showing us their school uniform & even reading us a story. For the families who moved recently to better accommodation, developments include setting up an online business to sell clothes imported from India and for another family a flourishing veggie garden, which shows how a better environment enables a more productive life. Another family, where both parents work, one of their sons has enrolled in an IT course at Macquarie University.
By contrast, those without visas cannot attend TAFE, & have no work rights. Even their children, who have attended High School here, and in one case gained an Arts Degree, are not allowed to work. The frustration caused by lack of visas leads to anxiety & many health problems.
The change of government had been a source of hope, but though there was the well publicised case of the Biloela family, the situation has worsened for others. Only last month a family was sent an ultimatum…accept an offer to go to New Zealand by 4 Oct. or return to your home country, in this case Iran. Only to be contacted a month later, after suffering a great deal of distress, to be told that the letter had been sent in error & has since been withdrawn by the Immigration Dept. Those refugees who have been in the community for over 10yrs, need safety & stability instead of living in fear. They really appreciate any support that we can give them.
VDSA has an invaluable role supporting refugees not just financially but also emotionally, such as when a mother was recently widowed, when her husband died of a heart attack, leaving her with a 6yr. old son. It is a privilege to be able to assist them, especially at such difficult times.
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