The Government’s very welcome decision to allow more people seeking asylum to live in the community, has also challenged us to find 40 new houses and twice as much funding for our care and emergency services. We need your help, so that more people like Hassan can reclaim their health and their lives.
The Minister for Immigration has announced that people arriving by boat and seeking asylum will be granted bridging visas following initial checks, and will live in the community while their claims are assessed. The community detention program will also continue to be used for more vulnerable people.
This is a very welcome decision that could end the deprivation and trauma that has been suffered by thousands of children, women and men who have been subjected to indefinite detention in Australian detention centres.
However, it also poses an enormous challenge in the first months of 2012. We are searching for 40 new houses and twice as much funding for our regular care and emergency services, so that we can both house people transferred into community detention, and respond to increased demand from people who will struggle under the provisions of bridging visas
The people leaving detention centres on bridging visas will have permission to work and access to medical treatment, and they may initially be eligible for welfare support on a case by case basis. These provisions are similar to those for people who have arrived by plane. And that’s the rub. Currently 40% of people living in the community and getting this limited welfare support, are homeless!
The Government’s decision is a profound step forward and we can contribute to making it work for the most vulnerable people, but only with your help.
Most of the people who arrive in our care have been on traumatic journeys spanning years. They have been separated from their families and children, sometimes detained and cut off from the world around them. Many are wracked with guilt at the thought that they have abandoned their families.
Hassan’s Story
Hassan is typical of young men who have reached Hotham ASP at their very lowest ebb. After arriving by plane from war-torn northern Pakistan in late 2008, the amiable 21-year-old secured a room and a part-time job, but his declining health – fuelled by sleepless nights and perpetual nightmares – saw his circumstances spiral slowly out of his control.
After losing his job and then his home, Hassan was referred to a psychologist and treated with sleeping pills and anti-depressants. But still the nightmares came. “My family was dying before my eyes every night,” he recalls.
When he arrived at Hotham in late 2010, Hassan was penniless, homeless, and on the verge of a complete breakdown. His suffering could only have deepened, were it not for help given to Hotham ASP by our Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, which has provided two houses in eastern Melbourne to people like Hassan in desperate need of safety and security and the chance to re-find their own strength.
“We’ve been touched by the courageous stories of many of these young men, heading out on their own to build a better life for their families,” says parish priest Fr Brendan Reed. “We just want to do whatever little we can to help.”
For Hassan, that help has been life-changing. During nine months in Our Lady’s house, he has returned to professional counselling, completed his application for protection, and secured a new job. He left the house and took up private rental in November, and has applied to join a TAFE small business management course. “The future is definitely brighter now,” he says.
Urgent needs
Over the coming months, we estimate that we will need 40 new houses to offer temporary refuge to the families and young men entering our care. We will need to double our current levels of funding to provide the food, utilities, levels of personal care and psychological support that people arriving in Australia in devastating circumstances inevitably require.
With the anticipated arrival of hundreds more people from detention centres, it has fallen to agencies like Hotham ASP to find housing and provide the specialist casework needed to support people facing uncertain futures. Some will be moving positively towards refugee status and permanent residence, and some of will ultimately need support to prepare for a journey away from Australia.
In recent months, Hotham ASP has been selected to provide services under the Victorian Government’s Intensive Case Management Initiative, which aims to assist people who have, like Hassan, moved to the very edge of destitution. Hotham ASP is also providing specialist ‘people seeking asylum’ training to community agencies and caseworkers around Australia.
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