children – Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group

Lobbying Federal Politicians in Canberra

Joy Connor and Marie Sellstrom, President of Rural Australians for Refugees, spent 2 days in Canberra meeting with politicians. They met with Russell Broadbent, sent Marise Payne a gift of Blue Mountains honey and a copy of Behrouz Boochani’s book and met with Julie Bishop. The meetings were facilitated by local member Susan Templeman.
Julie Bishop said that refugee advocates needed to lobby for more involvement by Australia in regional intercountry dialogue such as the ‘Bali Process’, if there is to be any kind of solution to forced migration. Read more
- Advocacy
Top UN official slams Australia’s offshore detention

New Human Rights chief’s, Michelle Bachelet, first speech to the Human Rights Council, says Australia’s offshore processing immigration regime is “an affront to the protection of human rights”, #KidsOffNauru Read The Guardian article: ‘Affront to human rights’: top UN official slams Australia’s offshore detention Listen to Michelle Bachelet https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TjgnpU5AuwQRead more
- Detention
Look Mum! I can swim.

Seven weeks ago we started our third term of the asylum seeker swimming program. Each week this very enthusiastic group of youngsters with their mums and dads arrive at the Blacktown Aquatic Centre for their “extended “ swimming lesson.

These lessons are thanks to BMRSG supporters and the terrific volunteers.Read more
- Stories
BMRSG Works – Life for our asylum seekers is far from easy

Life for our asylum seekers is far from easy. It’s a constant battle to fight the maze of Immigration red tape, struggle with what you can and cannot do and keep yourself and families in as good health as possible.
At our recent AGM a couple (members of BMRSG) offered me the most wonderful opportunity. They offered an asylum seeker family the opportunity to have a beach holiday at their holiday house. As a special bonus one of the conditions was I was to accompany them!Read more
- Stories
BMRSG Works – Refuge for woman and child in need.

Before Christmas I requested help for a Punjabi woman and her child who was in a desperate
situation. Within 10 minutes of making the request I had my first offer of accommodation for her.
Meg, from Katoomba offered a lovely room for 3 weeks. This wasn’t just accommodation it was the
hand of friendship, a non-judgemental environment where her confidence could be restored. There
was love, laughter and tears. The outcome is a friendship forever.
No words could possibly convey the gratitude that we all owe to Meg.
The next step of the journey has begun.Read more
- Stories
BMRSG Works – Even more shoeboxes this year

In this the 3rd year of the Youth Shoebox Project even more were received. More than 203 were delivered to children and young people seeking refuge and asylum.
This project is a joint effort with Mountains Youth Services Team (MYST) and Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group (BMRSG) – working together to spread love and support.Read more
- Stories

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