The Mental Health Costs to People Seeking Asylum in Australia

Introducing Panelists: Dr. Caroline Fleay, Michelle Bui, Mehdi Vakili, and Assadullah Khurrami.

Dr Caroline Fleay is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, where she teaches human rights and conducts research into the experiences of people seeking asylum in Australia. Dr Fleay has been involved with a range of community groups and human rights campaigns over the past three decades, including refugee rights.

Michelle Bui has been an activist with the Refugee Rights Action Network WA for the past five years. She has been regularly visiting people held in immigration detention since mid-2014 and also maintains contact with people who the Australian government have detained on Manus Island and Nauru. Through working with refugees and people seeking asylum in detention and in the community she has borne witness to the deleterious impact that Australia’s immigration policies have on peoples’ mental health.

Mehdi Vakili is a 33 year old political blogger and social activist from Iran – who was sent to Nauru after arriving in Australia in 2012 as an asylum seeker. While detained, Mehdi used his social media skills to raise his voice , and the voices of the 400 other asylum seekers who were on the island.

Assadullah Khurrami,from Afghanistan, “came to Australia as an asylum seeker in 2011 and I have been working in the humanitarian and international development sector for over 15 years in Australia and overseas. Currently working with refugees and asylum seekers. Human rights and refugee advocate and I have been a community leader for over a year in Perth and am a founding member of Salsaal Integration.”

The panel will be faciliated by Ashley MacMillan, convenor of the Amnesty International Refugee Rights Group.

The panel will answer questions from the audience.

If you’d like to send in any questions for the panel – please email them to Libby on libbyhwilliams@gmail.com