Refugee Week - Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes in NSW

Post date: Jun 16, 2015 4:49:08 AM

This was passed on to us regarding refugee week ...

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Next week is Refugee Week.

Australia has a proud history of helping asylum seekers, refugees and migrants proving to be a welcoming nation, welcoming thousands of European and Vietnamese refugees fleeing WWII and then the Vietnam War.

Currently there are around 50 million refugees with more than 85% currently living in developing nations. With conflict increasing around the world hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing their homes every week.

In the Asia Pacific very few countries have signed the Refugee Convention meaning they have no international obligation to provide protection to refugees.

We believe Australia, as a signatory to the Refugee Convention, should be a leader for our region in providing support and protection to all asylum seekers and refugees. Internationally Australia takes very few asylum seekers and we believe there are alternative approaches to our current stance that we can take.

This edition of Just In Time from the Social Justice Committee of CLRI(NSW) looks at the ways in which Australia and other nations deal with asylum seekers.

Regards,

Sharon Price rsm

Executive Director

CLRI(NSW)