Resources to assist refugee / asylum seeker support actions and campaigns around Australia
Social Media Hub: Speaking Up for Refugees social media campaign
Letter Writing
Contact details for Federal Politicians
Find a current campaign
Find a current action, rally, vigil or event
Also, see suggestions for letters to politicians on the ARAN campaigns
and actions pages.
Refugee Advocacy Network’s (Vic) resources pages:
• 2021 Palm Sunday: virtual events, social media campaign and online actions
• Refugees are Welcome – Permanent Protection for Refugees
• End Detention – Free the Refugees
• End the Offshore Cruelty – Bring Them to Safety
List of Useful Websites
Research
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- Global: Refugee Research Online
This website provides a platform for academic and non-academic research and comment on issues surrounding people seeking asylum and refugees. - UNHCR
- Kaldor Centre
- Refugee Council of Australia
- Edmund Rice Centre
- ASRC
- Asylum Insight
- Human Rights Law Centre
- Refugee Research Online
- Refugee Survey Quarterly
- Recent News
- Global: Refugee Research Online
Reports, Submissions & Statements
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- Country Reports for Sri Lanka June 2024
It continues to be unsafe for Tamil refugees to be sent back to Sri Lanka.
Documents prepared by combined Refugee Action Group:
Briefing note June 2024 (summary document)
CRAG Sri Lanka country Information Report
- Liberty Victoria
presentation is here (pdf)
Description: Presentation: Pathways to a Just Migration Act – Forum presented by Liberty Victoria & Grandmothers for Refugees 20 Oct 2021
See zoom recording here (access password y4L72kokEk^o )Report April 2021: Bridging the Blindspot. This report calls for the Australian government and the Department to implement a system for bridging visa applications which is fair and transparent to people seeking asylum. See related info here.Report by Liberty Victoria on the Ministerial powers and refugees – 2017.
The Minister is no stranger to scrutiny of the exercise of ministerial powers and discretions. Under the Migration Act, the Minister has extraordinary powers and the ability to influence the lives of people seeking asylum in Australia. One of these powers is in relation to the ability to grant or deny a bridging visa to people seeking asylum. - Summary of ALP Policy on refugees – prepared by Labor for Refugees March 2021
- Country Reports for Sri Lanka June 2024
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- Migration and Citizenship Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020 Australian Human Rights Commission submission
to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. 9 February 2021 - APNOR Summary Report of New Zealand Consultation
Asia Pacific Network of Refugees (APNOR) - Refugee issues in Australia and globally
- Return to Homeland Resource Guide
Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, July 2019
- Migration and Citizenship Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020 Australian Human Rights Commission submission
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Political party policy platforms
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- The Australian Labor Party
018-2019 ALP Platform Chapter 9 A Fair Go for All
pages 36 – 45 Points 265 – 344 A Nation Built on Migration.
View the full ALP Platform. - The Liberal Party
Policy on Border Protection. - The Australian Greens
Policies.
- The Australian Labor Party
Find out more about your federal politicians
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- Open Australia
For all its faults and foibles, our democracy is a profound gift from previous generations. Yet most people don’t know the name of their representative, let alone what they do or say in their name. Find out more about your federal politicians on the Open Australia website.
- Open Australia
Media lists
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- Media links and contacts. This list is somewhat out-of-date so if you have a current list please contact us.
- WA regional media contacts.
Other Resources
• Video, Films, Books, and Audio
• Storytelling project: Shifting The Story
Six storytellers of refugee backgrounds an opportunity to articulate their experiences of COVID-19 and imagine what a post-pandemic world could look like.
• Australia Human Rights week videos – Rural Australians For Refugees
A series of seven videos published during Human Rights week (10 – 16 December 2020): Kaid Mohammad Romero 1 Romero2 Romero3 Atosha Muzafar
Find out more about Rural Australians For Refugees (RAR).
• Green Connect Farm Illawarra is employing refugees
View the story on YouTube
• Keith Binns – Songs about Refugees:
Conference presentations
Other refugee advocacy organisations
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Presentations from the ARAN Conference 2018:
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- Attracting Media to your actions: Wes Cusworth
- CASPA Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum: Glenn Jessop
- Creative Activism Workshop: Nicola Paris CounterAct
- Establishing and Building Activist Groups: Jan Govett RAR
- Lobbying & letter writing workshop: Linda Cusworth
- Meeting with MPs: Linda Cusworth
- Planning for Palm Sunday Walk: Kerry Phillips
- Social Media Digital Activists: Mums4Refugees
- Tips for Writing Letters to Newspapers: Linda Cusworth
- Tips for Writing to Politicians: Linda Cusworth
- Tools for the Campaign Planning Toolkit: Samuel Dariol.
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Video, Films, Books, and Audio
- Refugee Rights and Policy Wrongs: A frank, up-to-date guide by experts – Professor Jane McAdam and Fiona Chong – UNSW Press, 2019.
Provides accurate, evidence-based information on Australian asylum policies such as mandatory detention, offshore processing and boat turnbacks. - Asylum Seekers and Refugees: The Facts
Asylum Insight’s school resources, developed by and in consultation with teachers, provide facts on asylum seekers and refugees for secondary students and their teachers. - Refugee rights and policy wrongs
Professor Jane McAdam, director of the Director of the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, and Fiona Chong preview their new book on Australia’s asylum policies and international legal obligations. The book provides a straightforward account of how international refugee law operates, where Australia’s laws and policies fall short of what international law demands and brings facts to bear on a highly politicised debate. - The Kabul Peace House – Mark Isaacs
A hope-filled, good news story from Afghanistan. Read more here - RCOA List of Books on Refugees
- RCOA List of Books about Refugee Journeys
- Booktopia’s List of Books – Refugees & Political Asylum
- More Books – Refugees tell their Story in Non-Fiction, Fiction and Poetry
- Refuge Lost: Asylum Law in an Interdependent World, Cambridge University Press, 2018
- No Friend But the Mountains by Kurdish journalist of Behrouz Boochani – available in bookstores and online.
- When Elephants Fight, Majok Tulba, Penguin
- Walking Free by Munjed al Muderis – Munjed al Muderis at TEDxSydney
- Dignity in a teacup: stories of courage & sacrifice from Christmas Island: written by Bendigo RAR President Chris Cummins. Chris was a torture and trauma counselor on Christmas Island.
- The Power of Good People: Para Paheer with Alison Corke (Alison is a member of Apollo Bay RAR)
- A Grain of Hope a picture book for older readers about refugees and detention centres. This beautifully illustrated book tells a dual story, on facing pages, of a dog and a refugee girl, whose lives mirror each other…until the end. Facts about refugees are provided at the end to assist in discussion. 100% of profits will be donated to Rural Australians for Refugees.
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Video, Films and Audio:
Bring Hope to Refugees: Love Makes A Way Powerpoint Slideshow.
The Norwesterlies’ first video clip called ‘Five Years‘.
“Five Years is dedicated to the men, women and kids who have endured Australia’s hellish refugee detention regime for way too long (for many it’s close to six years) … hope it becomes irrelevant soon.” The Norwesterlies.
The Birds, by Moz with Ruth Mundy: ARAN is happy to share Moz’s song.
The Merger. There’s a preview at https://youtu.be/hwxhEp-CtnI
Poetic and hypnotic, Island of the Hungry Ghosts presents a unique and moving meditation on politics, people and primeval nature. As trauma therapist Poh Lin gently coaxes detainees to tell their stories, Christmas Island’s willing residents perform “hungry ghost” rituals for spirits whose lack of proper burial has doomed them to wander its jungles for eternity. Meanwhile, the crabs march across the land in their millions, in an endless cycle that repeats every year.
Border Politics a film by Julian Burnside brings a sense that Australia is not being true to its image of itself. This contemporary story is about the threat to human rights, the loss of democratic values and our increasingly heartless treatment of ‘the other’.
Stop the Boats tells the story of how Australia used a three word slogan to demonise people seeking asylum fleeing war and persecution, condemning them to indefinite offshore detention and torture in prison camps on Manus Islsand and Nauru. The stories of the experience of asylum seeking are told by asylum seekers including children from within detention centres, secretly filmed in Nauru and Manus.
Manus Island: Australia abandons refugees to a life of despair on YouTube. Added by Amnesty International Australia January 31 2018, Amnesty International researcher Kate Schuetze speaks with ABCNews24 about Australia’s treatment of people seeking asylum.
The Truth About Manus Island on YouTube.
Added by Studio 10 November 19 2017. Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Centre, Hugh de Kretser, speaks with us about the crisis on Manus Island.
Don’t take them: warning from a former Manus Is guard RNZ Checkpoint
on YouTube. Added by RNZ November 13 2017. A New Zealand man who worked at the Manus Island refugee detention facility is warning the government against taking any refugees, saying the ones still at the centre are dangerous men.
UNHCR Urges Humane Approach on Manus Island 10 November 2017.
Explosive footage from inside the Manus Island detention camp. Recorded by GetUp November 2017.
Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time trailer co-directed by Behrouz Boochani and Arash Kamali Sarvestani.
Refugee Film Festival 2017 films.
The Forgotten Children: Four Corners visits Nauru on YouTube. Added by ABC News (Australia) October 17 2016. There are 755 refugees on Nauru and 128 of them are children. Both the Nauruan and Australian governments say they want the refugees moved on from Nauru, but they have been unable to reach agreements on where else they could be sent. While that stalemate continues, many of these children are struggling to hang on to hope.
How Different Are We Flashmob 2016 on YouTube. Added by How Different Are We July 16 2016. A dance flashmob to raise awareness about the treatment of people who are asking for safety and protection. Celebrated on Nelson Mandela Day in Federation Square, Melbourne, the dancers question what Nelson Mandela might think about Australia’s current policy of detaining vulnerable people indefinitely.
Need more film suggestions? Scroll down the RAR (Rural Australians for Refugees) website resources page.
Have something to add? Contact Us.
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Voices of People with Lived Experience
Voices of People with Lived Experience.
Radio program: “Why I settled in Tasmania” Hobart FM. Broadcasting July 22 – September 2 2017, every Saturday from 10.00am – 11.00am at Hobart FM 96.1-92.1 FM. Access through: Hobart FM. More info at Multicultural Council of Tasmania.
All The Same Moz on YouTube. Added 29 August 2017. Asylum Seeker ‘Moz’ releases song recorded in Manus Island detention centre August 30, 2017. ‘All the Same’ produced by O’Brien, Skov & Pilkington @Audrey Studios.
Nowhere Line: Voices from Manus Island. Documentary by Lukas Schrank
on YouTube. Added by the CGBros September 9 2016. **Award Winning** CGI 2D/3D Documentary. Check out this award winning CGI Animated documentary…An animated short film, narrated by two asylum-seeking men detained in Australia’s Manus Island Offshore Processing Centre, recounting the dangerous journeys that brought them to the island and their memories of the riot that erupted in 2014.
15 years in a refugee camp. How did I learn? Tulsa Gautam at TEDxJCUCairns
on YouTube. Added by TEDx Talks December 7 2015. After her parents fled religious persecution in Bhutan, Tulsa was born and spent the first 15 years of her life living in the refugee camp in Nepal. This experience fueled her passion for helping others and for education. Tulsa has an inspiring story of overcoming obstacles to achieve your dreams.
Being a refugee is not a choice Carina Hoang at TEDxPerth on YouTube. Added by TEDx Talks January 15 2014. Refugees are often marginalised, their humanity ignored as their stories go untold. In this remarkable and emotional talk, however, author and former refugee Carina Hoang discusses her experience as a “boat person”. It’s a powerful account that is impossible to ignore.
Have something to add? Contact Us.
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Links to other refugee advocacy organisations
Media
These organisations have useful resources and information:
• Refugee Council of Australia: includes resources such as statistics, publications and audiovisual resources as well as information on leaving danger (why people leave), seeking safety (how people seek safety), and how people settle in Australia
• GetUp: includes facilitation and meetings, strategy and community calling
• Amnesty International Australia: information and resources for action
• Oxfam Australia: Right to Refuge campaign and refugee articles
• Rural Australians for Refugees: includes reports, newsletters, films, UNHCR videos on YouTube, TED talks playlist
• Kaldor Centre University of New South Wales
• Refugee Research Online.
Other national campaigns:
• GetUp! No Business in Abuse
• Refugee Council of Australia and local councils: Refugee Welcome Zones
• Refugee Council of Australia and Rural Australians for Refugees:
National Tour of the Welcome scroll.
Have something to add? Contact Us.
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Current campaigns
See resources for current campaigns.