The announcement made at MDA’s ‘Regions of Welcome – Regional Settlement Conference’ in Toowoomba, flags the first major resettlement service provider in Australia to join Amnesty International’s ‘My New Neighbour’ campaign, which calls on the Australian Government to expand and improve the current refugee community sponsorship program.
“Every day communities around Australia welcome new neighbours into their neighbourhoods. Sometimes those new neighbours are refugees and the role communities play in welcoming them so that they can rebuild their lives in safety is crucial,” said Shankar Kasynathan, Refugee Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia.
“In Queensland, MDA plays such an important role in welcoming and providing support to refugees. Amnesty International is so grateful that they have joined with us in their ongoing engagement, to raise awareness of our ‘My New Neighbour’ campaign which calls to expand and improve refugee community sponsorship.”
“In Queensland, MDA plays such an important role in welcoming and providing support to refugees. Amnesty International is so grateful that they have joined with us in their ongoing engagement, to raise awareness of our ‘My New Neighbour’ campaign which calls to expand and improve refugee community sponsorship.”
Through the support the organisations hope to celebrate the inspiring stories coming Queensland’s support for those who have recently arrived through the community sponsorship program. At the same time Amnesty’s campaign. At the same time Amnesty’s campaign highlights a number of the challenges that need to be addressed in the existing sponsorship model introduced in Australia.
Together, the My New Neighbour campaign will highlight the room for growth and the need to make the road to refuge in Australia, safer and easier for those in need of Australia’s help.
The community sponsorship model has worked successfully Canada for almost 40 years, welcoming over 280,000 refugees through the program, in addition to its humanitarian intake.
In contrast, in Australia, the community sponsorship program is capped at only 1,000 places this year and for every privately sponsored refugee, the government takes a space away from our annual humanitarian intake of 13,500.
“We can see from Canada’s example that the kindness of neighbours can help people who have lost everything to start again. We hope ordinary people across Australia will see the success of this and say, ‘Let’s do our bit and help bring these vulnerable people to safety’,” said Shankar Kasynathan.
