Latest News

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  Dutton’s Dog Bill is back in the Senate

  Institutionalised brutality has to be challenged.
  Again! Last year we thought that we had stopped Minister Dutton’s plans to allow the use of dogs in detention centres and for officers to have increased powers for strip searches and seizures without warrants. We thought that the Minister of Home Affairs wouldn’t have the arbitrary right to decide what was to be a “prohibited object” in detention centres and would remain answerable to Parliament and the courts for his actions. We thought that people in immigration detention could keep their phones.

  But the Migration Amendment (Prohibiting items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2017 is back.  It is in the Senate to be voted on this session.
  Write to the Independent Members of the Senate.
  Read more

  • Advocacy
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  A second car gets a new life and finds a new home

  Once again the Year 11 Manual Arts Students at Blaxland High School, under the guidance of automotive teacher, Shaun Halden have restored a car which would have otherwise be destined for the scrap heap and donated it to a refugee.

  The old Volvo – known as Goldie – which was donated by Rose Wilesmith of Warrimoo, was handed over to BMRSG on 8 June and will now be owned by refugee Hadi, who will use it to get to his work and also to the metal fabrication course he attends at Ultimo TAFE three nights a week.Read more

  • Stories

• Have you heard about the harsh cuts to asylum seeker support?

  Listen to this clear explanation of what is happening to 12500 people on 18 June when they lose there allowances of $35 a day and what has happened to them since they arrived 2012/13. Why haven’t they worked? Why haven’t they learnt English? All the answers are here. Have you heard about the harsh cutsRead more

  • Advocacy
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  BMRSG Helps – From Trauma to Work Opportunities

  A little more than a year ago two members of BMRSG met with Aasha (not her real name) who had escaped a horrific situation in India with the help of friends. Once she arrived in Australia she applied for asylum. Aasha was being supported by a STARTTS counsellor, her rent was mostly being paid by a leading charity which aids refugees, so BMRSG agreed to pay her $60 per week towards the rent plus $20 for her ongoing medications and fares.

  A few months later the charity said they were no longer able to pay Aasha’s rent. So, it appeared Aasha would be on the streets. Read more

  • Stories
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  Teaching resources for Refugee Week and beyond

  Education resources for Refugee Week and beyond
  Want to involve your local school in Refugee week? Refugee week 2018 is the 17th to the 23rd of June. The NSW Education Department has produced an excellent teaching resource called Roads to Refuge suitable for upper primary through to year 10 which covers a number of curriculum areas. It includes lesson plans-videos, fact sheets, and worksheets.
  It is worth passing the link on to your local school. They take notice when locals contact them!! links follow
  Read more

  • Advocacy
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  Ged Kearney’s maiden speech to the House of Representatives 21 May 2018

  “That brings me to the issue of asylum seekers, a passionate and emotional issue for the voters in Batman’s community. I think proudly of the great achievements of both sides of this House, of Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke, who with bipartisan support provided sanctuary to those fleeing the consequences of war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and later from the events of Tiananmen Square. …

  I cannot comprehend how a nation that provided a safe home to so many in the wake of World War II, including our large Jewish community of Holocaust survivors, allowed the Tampa and the children overboard scandal to evolve into the shameful policy of indefinite detention on Manus and Nauru. Racist dog whistling has demonised and vilified a community that has everything to give Australia. And the sacrifice of this human potential has been made solely for political gain.Read more

  • Detention

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