Refugee Week 2021

ERA For Change Executive Leadership Video

The ERA For Change Executive Leadership Group created a video as part of Refugee Week. ERA For Change stands in solidarity and unites with all who come to Australia seeking refuge and asylum, particularly those who have been affected by the lockdowns and those detained in detention in Australia and offshore.

Detention for Detention

On June 10th 2021, Edmund Rice College Wollongong held their 'Detention for Detention' initiative. Students and staff participated in a lesson about what the ERC College prayer means when it says ‘Open your heart to Christ, present in those oppressed by poverty and injustice.’ Pamela Dunn, a member of Grandmothers for Refugees spoke with those students and staff who chose to take a voluntary detention as a sign of compassion and solidarity with refugees who are currently being held in indefinite detention.

You can read more about the day here.

Indefinite Sleepout

Taken from the Indefinite Sleepout Facebook page:

‘The Indefinite Sleepout to End Indefinite Detention’ is a campaign led by a small body of local doctors, health workers, students and refugee advocates, who for 330 consecutive nights, slept out in Wollongong Mall to put a face to the suffering of refugees, many of which are nearing eight years of imprisonment with no end in sight, for committing no crime whatsoever but merely seeking our protection. Since COVID, our campaign was forced to take a backstep in which the sleepout now operates from home, where every night a small committed group continue to sleepout from their backyards and balconies to draw attention to this injustice. We are calling for the immediate end of indefinite detention and have pledged to continue sleeping out for as long as refugees remain subject to this cruel treatment. Our message is simple: Indefinite detention is not only barbaric and cruel, it is illegal according to international law, contradicts the refugee convention we have signed, drains hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars, and worst still, is extremely harmful to health, particularly mental health. We propose:

Detention only for security and health checks and not to exceed 45 days (not 3000+ days)
Speedy processing of refugee determination
On-shore processing of all asylum seekers
Bridging visas which include community housing, employment rights, access to Medicare or similar subsidised health care and Centrelink payments to be available to all asylum seekers regardless of mode of arrival.

EREA schools participated in the Indefinite Sleepout from their own homes during COVID-19. You can read about their participation below:

Edmund Rice College, Wollongong: www.edmundricecollege.nsw.edu.au/erc-sleep-out-from-home/ and www.edmundricecollege.nsw.edu.au/from-the-director-of-identity/