Refugee Week Forum
1st floor Balmain Town Hall, 370 Darling Street, Balmain, Wednesday 20th June 6.30 for 7-9 p.m. (lift available)
The Forum, Not Political Football: Real Solutions for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, is being hosted by the Balmain for Refugees Group of Balmain Uniting Church.
It will be addressed by John Menadue and Lucy Morgan, Policy Officer from the Refugee Council of Australia. Mr Menadue, a former Secretary of the Department of Immigration, and now Board Director of the Centre for Policy Development, is joint author of CPD’s A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
The Forum will also provide the public with an opportunity to listen to an interview by Ngareta Rossell, BFR’s media officer with Ali Al Jenabi, whose story is the subject“The People Smuggler: the Oskar Schindler of Asia”, written by Robyn de Crespigny
Forum issues include :
- Australia’s regional responsibilities to refugees and asylum seekers including the possibility of negotiating an orderly departure program from “source” countries such as Afghanistan and from backlogs of refugees, asylum seekers and close family members in Indonesia and Malaysia.
- The tyranny of the present structure of Australia’s current Immigration categories and numbers in regard to the offshore and onshore annual Immigration .
- The impact on asylum seekers and their families of Australia’s refugee processing and family reunion programs, and mandatory detention policies.
Kate Maclurcan, folk singer and former Asylum Seeker Worker for Bridge for Asylum Seekers Foundation will sing some refugee songs.
Rochelle Porteous, Mayor of Leichhardt, will moderate the Forum.
Free entry. Donations to Bridge for Asylum Seekers Foundation, sister organisation of Balmain for Refugees. www.asylumseekersfoundation.com
