For 33 years, the Refugee Council of Australia has worked hard to be a strong and credible community voice for the humane treatment for
people seeking asylum. The situation for people seeking refugee protection has never been as dire as it is now and never has there been a greater need for the Refugee Council’s work.
Unfortunately, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, decided to cut all our core funding, despite promising to maintain its funding in the Budget. He decided that the Refugee Council should be involved in “sharing the pain”
of cuts to Federal spending.
Haven’t refugees and the organisations trying to support experienced enough pain?
We’ve reached out to some of you recently to help us overcome this $140,000 funding cut, and we’ve successfully raised just over $50,000. We still have work to do, and we need your help!
Will you support our national #voice4refugees? Do not allow this petty decision of the Minister to silence us. Please support us as we continue to work as hard as we can to be a strong and credible community voice for the humane treatment
for people seeking asylum.
"Successive Australian Governments have, to our nation’s shame, forgotten the ideals of the Refugee Convention and chosen to expel and detain people fleeing persecution.
One organisation which has consistently opposed these policies has been the Refugee Council of Australia, which has stood up for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers since 1981.
Now the Abbott Government is attempting to silence the Refugee Council by completely cutting its core funding.
I am proud to be a member of the Refugee Council and I urge you to join me in ensuring this essential national voice for justice and compassion for refugees is not silenced."
- Full message from the Hom. Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia
RCOA promotes the adoption of flexible, humane and practical policies towards refugees and asylum seekers both within Australia and internationally through
conducting research, advocacy, policy analysis and community education. With your support, we can keep our current staff together while we continue to provide the resources refugees need.
With your help, we can continue our work with the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.
Najeeba Wazefadost, a women’s rights advocate and former refugee, was 12 when her family fled the Taliban in Afghanistan and made it Australia by boat to seek asylum. After time in Curtin detention centre, she was given temporary protection.
She is now an Australian citizen, founder of Hazara Women’s Association and an Ambassador for Welcome to Australia.
"In June 2014, I will be travelling to Geneva with the Australian National Committee on Refugee Women to participate in UNHCR’s global NGO Consultations. I and other refugee representatives there will be
supported by the great work RCOA has done in recent months to consult refugee communities and to gather their concerns for us to discuss with UNHCR officials. RCOA’s research on national and international refugee issues is impressive. We need to support RCOA
to make sure this continues."
With your help, we can continue to educate the world about refugees and engage in the public debate about refugees and asylum seekers.
Abdi Aden, an educator and motivational speaker and former refugee, fled Somalia's civil war as a teenager, arriving alone in Melbourne at 16. He completed his schooling and became a youth worker. In 2013, Abdi participated in the SBS-TV documentary
“Go Back To Where You Came From”. He is now a motivational speaker, Refugee Week Ambassador and partner in RCOA’s schools program.
"I really value RCOA’s work in educating young people with integral knowledge of what refugees experience, broadening their awareness of the world. I’m pleased to be involved because these presentations to
school groups are effective in challenging the many myths about refugees and asylum seekers. The public debate about refugees has never been worse so I can’t emphasise enough the critical role the Refugee Council of Australia is playing in promoting fairer
refugee policies and the benefits to Australia of being a nation which welcomes refugees."
