Media

African Refugees and Federal Government Decision

I believe you will have heard about the federal government decision on 2nd October 2007 that no new refugee applications from Africa will be processed until June next year. This decision came after the death of 18-year-old Sudanese man Liep Gony after he was beaten up near a railway station in Melbourne's south-east. The Minister of immigration is of the opinion that Sudanese Australians are facing difficulty settling and adjusting to the Australian way of life. He says - I quote - "We know they've been in war-torn situations; many of these people are much younger than any other group of refugees. A lot of people from African regions need extensive trauma and torture counseling".

While I do not completely share the Minister's opinion, I must say first of all that it is very pleasing to hear the government talking seriously about the difficult settling process for war-torn African migrants to Australia. The settlement process itself has often been fraught with organisational problems stemming from a lack of clarity over the various responsibilities shared between Federal, State, and local governments and other service providers. It is often difficult to know which level of government is responsible for which aspect of settlement.

The Minister says that African refugees are not integrating well into the Australian community. Yet we need to look at why. A recent study by the Centre for Displacement Studies says that children across the Sudan have faced "extensive threats and abuses, including killing, maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction, denial of humanitarian assistance, forced labour, trafficking, and recruitment by armed forces and groups."

For our young people who have arrived in Australia, these things are not a distant memory, they are very real and part of their recent past.

So you see, that refugees from Sudan have very special needs, especially the young people. And this is why we need to take special care in the settlement of Sudanese.

One example of the problems we have with the settlement process, and an important point to consider, is the age of social workers dealing with Sudanese youth. These social workers are in many cases very near the age of the youth themselves, and identify very closely with them.

In many cases, Sudanese young people are encouraged by these young social workers to declare themselves independent from their own families, believing that this is the best way for the youth obtain Government benefits. This comes with the apparent advantage of providing these young people with an independent social life outside of their family, but it of course is merely opening the door to many social problems which the Sudanese Community is finding difficult to tackle, because the youths are already somewhat removed from their community.

In this regard, I agree with the Minister for Immigration, when he says that the settlement process is not working for many African refugees. It is not working when youth are encouraged to separate from their families, and in so doing, lose the very support that they need to assist them to settle in Australia. Youth that are separate from their families are at risk of causing many of the problems that the government is finding hard to control.

The Multicultural Sudanese Centre, believe the government's decision to shut the door for new African refugees is not reflect the great Australia's history of accepting people from different cultural backgrounds, However, I encourage the government to keep working hard to provide adequate services for the current population of Sudanese young people.

In conclusion, we are at an important point in the history of Sudanese migration to Australia. We must continue to work hard together for the successful settlement of our war-affected people who have suffered so much before arrival, and who find themselves in a strange new country that may not understand them. Before we declare that Sudanese and other African refugees cannot settle into the Australian way of life, we must treat them as they are - the survivors of torture, massacres, and other atrocities. Then, with the proper support and resources, we must keep these families together and help them to properly engage with the wider community in a safe and healthy way.

Thanks for your time.

Elhadi Abass

Manager
Multicultural Sudanese Centre Inc

Phone: 03 9376-6513 or 0423945548
Email: sudane@sudanesecentre.org.au
Website: www.sudanesecentre.org.au