Our guest speaker last week was Dr Jean Ker Walsh, who spoke to the meeting about the problems faced by refugees and those seeking asylum in Australia, and who have been held in detention for long periods of time, both in Australia and in surrounding countries. She is a Co-chair of a group called Grandmothers for Refugees (previously called Grandmothers Against Detention of Children), a national movement of women elders lobbying for justice for refugees, which started when a group of senior women considered the effect that detention on Nauru was having on the emotional and physical development of children sent there by the Australian government. The group was active in the Kids off Nauru Campaign which finally shamed the government into removing children from these places.
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Dr Ker Walsh explained the terms displaced persons (still within their own country), refugees (displaced and forced to leave their own country) and asylum seekers (who face persecution within their country and claim protection within another country). Refugee status determination comes from an independent process conducted by a body such as the UNHCR. To put in context, the world has 100 million displaced persons, Australia has 31,000, with 19,000 arriving before 2013 and 207 people have been in detention longer than 5 years. She compared this with the humanitarian approach to Vietnamese boat people and WW2 immigrants in previous decades.
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Dr Ker Walsh pointed out the larger numbers of those since the Tampa who arrive by air (90,000) rather than sea (31,000). Over 1 million visas of all kinds are currently awaiting processing. Jean discussed the impact of the delay on the well being of the people involved and talked about the impact on some of the families she has been personally involved with.
Jean’s thought-provoking presentation resulted in many questions and much discussion after the meeting and during the following days.
To find out more about Grandmothers or to join, go to the website at www.grandmothersforrefugees.org.au . And also remember FROGS (Friends of Grandmothers), another supportive group assisting destitute refugees is the Brigidine Asylum seeker project.
Dr Paul Shekleton
Meeting Chair