Yass Rural Australians for Refugees (YRAR), St Augustine’s Catholic Church and Yass Uniting Church have begun initial discussions about collaboration to increase political activism and action from the Yass Valley towards Australia's refugee policy.
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The initiative came during YRAR founder and president Karan Gabriel’s talk (on Sunday, April 2) as part of a series at St Augustine’s, organised by the church Parish in conjunction with Yass Ministers.
Ms Gabriel spoke about human rights and why it is necessary to defend them, the current situation with refugees globally and closer to home, and why small community groups like YRAR are important.
I think it’s really important that we all come under the banner of Yass Rural Australians for Refugees because we need to have a voice that’s from this whole community.
- Father Mick Burke, St Augustine's Catholic Church
Ms Gabriel – an award-winning journalist, former editor of the Yass Tribune, current public-sector worker and law student – said that it would be ideal for relevant rural organisations to collaborate to voice their concerns about Australia’s refugee policy.
“Our group is focused on a number of these areas, particularly providing practical support, bringing political pressure to bear, and raising awareness of refugee issues. We know that there are others in Yass already doing the same sorts of things,” she said.
Ms Gabriel also spoke about the inhumane nature of Australia’s current refugee policy, saying it lags behind others and its record is something we should not be proud of.
“In absolute numbers, Australia is ranked 48th in the world in taking in refugees.”
She said if we tripled our intake of refugees, it would mean about “an extra 29 people in the Yass Shire, where the population is about 16,500 — give or take a few”.
In her talk, Ms Gabriel referred to a presentation by Dr John Minns (ANU and Canberra Refugee Action Committee):
Father Mick Burke, parish priest at St Augustine’s Catholic Church, shares Ms Gabriel’s sentiments.
“I think it’s really important that we all come under the banner of Yass Rural Australians for Refugees because we need to have a voice that’s from this whole community,” Fr. Burke said.
“I’ve heard some of the [refugee] stories and they are just absolutely horrendous. And the lies that are being told — and they’re being told by politicians daily and everybody seems to think they’re true. There are people who are sensible enough, wise enough to realise that what’s happening in Australia will show our history as being pretty ordinary, to say the least.”
In 2014, Ms Gabriel organised a candlelight vigil in Yass as a symbol of solidarity with asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru.
YRAR – a growing community group focused on providing practical support to refugees, advocating for human rights and reaching out in the local community to help build understanding of refugee issues – will join fellow organisations advocating for human rights issues at the Palm Rally: Welcome Refugees in Canberra at 1pm–2pm on Sunday, April 9.
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