Author: More to the Story

It takes courage to be a refugee

On By More to the StoryIn Events, get involved

As a writer and researcher I remain concerned about the lack of empathy toward refugees and asylum seekers, as well as the simplistic narratives told by mainstream media. Refugees are vulnerable people who are fleeing war, violence and persecution in their home countries, and don’t deserve to be met with such overwhelming ignorance and fear.

Many of my friends tell me – “no-one chooses to become a refugee”.

As people who have faced persecution because of who they are (their race, nationality or membership of a persecuted group) or what they believe (their religion or political opinion), refugees need courage:

  • The courage not to deny identity or beliefs in the face of persecution.
  • The courage to leave all that is familiar and step into the unknown in search of peace.
  • The courage to keep going in the face of devastating loss, difficulty and despair.
  • The courage to begin again, to work hard and to maintain hope in an unfamiliar land.

The Australian Red Cross has listed five things to make a difference for refugees in your community, that we could all think about doing in 2017.  I love the fact that the first tip is to get informed and understand the facts.

Refugee Week is Australia’s peak annual activity to raise awareness about the issues affecting refugees and celebrate the positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society – this year it will be held from 18 to 24 June. Celebrated since 1986, Refugee Week coincides with World Refugee Day on 20 June.

In Australia, the theme for Refugee Week is “With courage let us all combine”. Taken from the second verse of the national anthem, the theme celebrates the courage of refugees and of people who speak out against persecution and injustice.  You can find out more about Refugee Week from the Refugee Council of Australia website.

Refugee-Week-2017

 

A child is a child

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, Global Trends, research and reports

A new report from UNICEF highlights some alarming statistics about vulnerable children in the world. As I write millions of children are on the move across international borders, fleeing violence and conflict, disaster or poverty in pursuit of a better life.

Hundreds of thousands of these children are alone, without any support and they faceUNICEF child report particularly grave risks. Unprotected, the children are easy prey for traffickers and others who abuse them. I can’t imagine how I would feel if this was my son, daughter, sister or brother who somehow got separated from me and my family. Can you?

UNICEF reports that in 2015-16 at least 300,000 unaccompanied and separated children were registered in 80 countries when they crossed borders. This is a five-fold increase from 66,000 in 2010-11. In fact the real number is likely much higher as not every child is registered. On the dangerous Central Mediterranean Sea passage from North Africa to Europe, 92 per cent of children who arrived in Italy in 2016 and the first two months of 2017 were unaccompanied, up from 75 per cent in 2015.

refugee childSave the Children reported in April this year that it was providing support to children as young as nine, who have fled war or poverty and have travelled under the radar for thousands of kilometres without a parent or guardian. “They are invisible to the authorities, and in some cases even when identified, they are placed in inadequate conditions, sometimes even detained.” As I have written previously, my own country Australia breaks numerous international laws, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, by placing children who have come seeking asylum in detention centres in the country and in off-shore island facilities. Further reading can be found the excellent website of the Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

Nearly all sovereign states around the world ratified the Convention on the Rights of the forgotten-childrenChild. They committed to respect and ensure the rights of “each child within their jurisdiction, without discrimination of any kind.” This means that all children, regardless of legal status, nationality or statelessness have the right to be protected from harm, have access to healthcare and education, to be with their family and have their interests protected.

It’s easy to forget that developing regions host 86 per cent of the world’s refugees under the UNHCR’s mandate. This means that the greatest share of responsibility falls on countries that are often ill-equipped to provide protection, while other wealthier countries take measures to reinforce their borders and stop people from arriving on their shores.

UNICEF reminds us that all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, to the benefit of a better world. Children can have a powerful voice – but we need to pay attention so those voices can be heard. Only then can we be informed, contribute to the conversation and influence change.

Ways of Being Here

On By More to the StoryIn Refugee stories, Refugees in WA, Telling other people's stories

Diverse voices matter in Australia more than ever. Ways of being here is pocket book-sized collection of four short stories that showcases the work of four tWays of Being Here coveralented African writers living in Australia – Raefeif Ismail, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Tinashe Jakwa and Yout A Alaak.

Maxine Beneba Clarke writes in her introduction: “Black people of African descent – black diaspora settlers and migrants and descendants of such – have been living in Australia for over 200 years. Yet local African diaspora fiction has been markedly absent from Australian shelves”.

Ways of being here is a terrific read. You can read it slowly, dipping into it over time, or in a few hours on an afternoon or evening you might have free. Either way, I guarantee you will want to read it several times. These beautifully written stories will capture your imagination and your attention. The four write of love, loss, the challenge of living between cultures, intergenerational clashes, of being made welcome and of being isolated.

Rafeif Ismail’s moving story, ‘Light at the end’, about two young women has language that sings off the page with emotion.   He writes: “When did you become this desperate, desolate thing? When did the world’s colours dull and laughter have a price? Fear is the chain you wear, shackling you between walls of loneliness, shame, regret and, most terribly, hope.”

Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes story, ‘When the sky looks like the belly of a donkey’, tackles the cultural challenges of starting a new life in Australia – a place so different from your home country. Yirga also captures what could be a group of typical Aussie blokes with insightful writing. The story about Ermi, usually mis-pronounced by many of his workmates as Army, is one I have heard from many migrants and people of refugee background. It is about starting at the bottom of the ladder, trying to fit in and always missing the people left behind. I laughed and I cringed but by the end of the story I smiled with hope.

All four short stories provide a valuable opportunity to reflect about the lives of others.

Ways of being here is published by Margaret River Press and the Centre for Stories, 2017

Stocking the pantry

On By More to the StoryIn get involved, Refugees in WA

CARAD is a fabulous organisation in Western Australia that has assisted thousands of refugees and asylum seekers with services such as settlement support, advocacy, referral, financial aid, English lessons, homework support and emergency supplies, including food and other pantry items.

As winter approaches and the number of CARAD’s non-income asylum seeker clients has food donationsincreased, the pantry is running low and they need your help. They’re looking for donations of the following:

cooking oil, sugar, salt, pepper, plain flour, cereal, instant coffee, tea, long-life milk, basmati rice, tinned tuna, tinned tomatoes, tinned fruit, honey, dried chickpeas or lentils, nuts and dried fruit, shavers, shaving cream, body wash or soap, toothbrushes, shampoo, male and female deodorant, laundry detergent, dish washing liquid, and tissues.

You can drop off your donations to their office at 245 Stirling St, Perth, Monday to Friday between 9am – 4pm.

Please spread the word.

For those of you who are keen to get involved and support some of our most vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees, volunteering with organisations such as CARAD is a great option. They have volunteering information sessions coming up, held at the CARAD office on:

  • Monday 22 May from 12-1 pm
  • Wednesday 24 May from 5.30-6.30 pm

Sessions will cover what CARAD does, the specific volunteer roles available, and the process for becoming involved. After attending an information session, volunteers will then be invited to participate in a ‘Building Bridges’ Training Course. To register your attendance please email sellie@carad.org.au.

Our Common Goal

On By More to the StoryIn Events, Refugees in WA

It’s not every evening that you get to tour a mosque, cheer on an enthusiastic game of soccer and attend a board meeting!

That was how my involvement with the Edmund Rice Centre unfolded on Monday night starting with the launch of our second Common Goal program.

Common Goal involves a partnership between the Edmund Rice Centre WA, Football West, WA Police and the Canning Mosque. It aims to give young people opportunities for leadership training and education through a soccer academy.

After the launch event, the Canning Mosque team (aged from 14 -18) took to the field against a WA Police team in an evenly matched game. Over 100 people watched and cheered on the game and I have to say some of the skills on display would have rivalled the A-League! Canning Mosque was victorious with a 1-0 win.

Common Goal also aims to foster positive relationships between people from diverse communities and assist in strengthening police engagement by providing fun and structured sporting activities where anyone is welcome.

As a board member of the Edmund Rice Centre WA, I was delighted to hear the thoughts of the Turkish Muslim Society, Canning Mosque representatives and senior members of the WA Police about how the program was making a difference in the local community.   I was also honored to tour the Mosque with the Iman before the game and understand more about this often misunderstood religion.

The highlight for me though was watching young people from very diverse cultural backgrounds mingling, playing and laughing together. It gives me hope for our future.

City of Thorns

On By More to the StoryIn Refugee stories, Reviews, Telling other people's stories

“No one wants to admit that the temporary camp of Dadaab has become permanent,” Ben Rawlence writes in his haunting book City of Thorns. Ben visited the camp for the first time as a researcher for Human Rights Watch. The next year he City of Thornsreturned for what would be the first of seven separate visits to follow and write about the lives of nine inhabitants.

I highly recommend this book because it gives those of us from a privileged background real insight into everyday life in a refugee camp.

He captures the daily lives and stories of nine people caught in limbo at Dadaab. The camp was originally founded in 1992 to serve the 90,000 refugees fleeing Somalia’s civil war. No one imagined that an entire generation of children would be raised there, or that so many more refugees would rush in, as the political chaos and famine in Somalia continued. “Neither the past, nor the present, nor the future is a safe place for a mind to linger for long,” he continues. “To live in this city of thorns is to be trapped mentally, as well as physically.”

I met Ben at the Perth Writers Festival and was fortunate enough to interview him on a panel with other writers. He is deep thinker who has witnessed the best and worst of humanity. He articulated what I have come to understand – thousands of people in many different refugee camps around the world have little hope of leaving. They are waiting for a new beginning that sadly may never come.

He mixes the portraits of the camp’s residents with big-picture accounts of the regional turmoil that drove them there (famine, the ascendance of Al Shabaab, corruption in the government and civil war). I was interested in his style of writing and the desire to personalise the stories of refugees and give context about countries and the situations they face because it is the way I wrote More to the story- conversations with refugees.

His stories about the people in Dadaab are brutally honest and insightful.   I found as a reader I became invested in their lives. What happened to Muna and Monday and the others? I worried about Guled, a former child soldier, and my heart ached for Kheyro and her determination to get an education. After many years in camp Muna and Monday were some of the lucky ones to be re-settled in Australia.   I breathed a sigh of relief but Ben explained at the Festival that while their lives were safe, unfortunately things had not gone well since they arrived. Sometimes that is the reality when people arrive in a new country and face other challenges on top of the trauma they may have already experienced.

The book demonstrates extraordinary human resilience and the choices people have to make to survive.

City of Thorns by Ben Rawlence is published by Portobello, 2016.

What’s it like to live in a refugee camp?

On By More to the StoryIn Refugee stories

We’ve all seen the images. People desperately waiting for help outside in the blazing sun in front of rows of white tents. A child behind barbed wire, covered in dust, gazes into the lens of a news camera. This is true for many thousands of refugees.

But that’s just part of the story. Camp Domiz is a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq where many Kurdish-Syrian refugees have sought shelter.

As the number of refugees grew, the camp gradually transformed from a temporary refuge to a makeshift town, where people live and work, go to school, start a business, get married, argue and try to have fun….otherwise how would you get up each day and keep going?

This award winning interactive documentary allows you to scroll through hand-drawn maps, drawings, photographs, and short video impressions of life in a refugee camp.

As I moved around different parts of the map and listened to some of the stories I couldn’t help thinking about my very comfortable life and the fact that I was sitting in my very comfortable study with all I needed to hand.

It is a reminder that refugees don’t just spend months – they can spend years or even decades in a refugee camp hoping for re-settlement.

I recommend you take a look at this impressive documentary and imagine how different your life would be in a refugee camp.

Refugee-Republic-UNHCR

State of the Nation

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, politics

The Refugee Council of Australia has just released its first ever State of the Nation report, a comprehensive investigation into the experiences of those seeking safety and settling in Australia within the broader context of the global crisis of human displacement.

A non-profit, non-government organisation, the Refugee Council of Australia is the national umbrella body for refugees as well as the organisations and individuals who support them. They play an important role in promoting the development of humane, lawful and constructive policies towards refugees and asylum seekers.

At a time when displacement is at its highest levels since World War II, this report critiques our government’s insular and often punitive fixation on closing Australia’s borders. It also examines the challenges faced by those who have arrived in Australia and are seeking to build new lives.

State of the Nation tells us what is happening to real people, here in our community, to their loved ones and their families.  It presents the voices and views, the ideas and expertise, of people who are seeking safety and settling in Australia, and of the many committed people who are working hard to help them.

This is an important report and one well worth reading. There is a short summary of State of the Nation on the Refugee Council of Australia’s website here, as well as the link to the full report.

 

 

In discussion with experts

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, Festivals

In our world of ‘alternative fact tweets’ and the 20 second media grab, it has been a real pleasure for me to immerse myself in reading a wide range of books as I prepare to facilitate a number of sessions at the Perth Writers Festival. Held from 23-26 February at the University of Western Australia the festival, as the program states, will be a time of ‘big bold ideas’.

I will be involved with these three panels:

I am particularly looking forward to Borderline with William Maley, Peter Mares and Ben Rawlence. All three writers have released new books about migration and refugee issues. We’ve seen an unprecedented movement of people around the globe in the last decade. There’s been an alarming reaction by western governments to limit the flow of refugees into their countries, while at the same time some have increased temporary migration and short term work or student visas. We’ll be discussing what the long term effect of these policies is and what has happened to our humanity.

Writers festivals are a chance to meet some great writers and thinkers in both non- fiction and fiction. They allow us to take time out from our usual routine, to listen and reflect more deeply. They also provide opportunities to make new friends and to buy or learn about new books… that’s why I love them. I hope to see you there.

 

Australia’s Death by Numbers

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, Refugee stories

While spending some time overseas for Christmas and New Year, I was touched by a powerful article I read in the New York Times by Roger Cohen, a journalist who has worked for over 15 international media outlets.  It is helpful to be away from your own country sometimes to “look back in from the outside.”

While I don’t always agree with Cohen’s views, this opinion piece written after a five day visit to Manus island struck a chord with me.  Cohen makes the point “Despite being a signatory of all major international human rights treaties, Australia has instituted an indefensible policy of cruelty as deterrence.” He also describes Australia’s detention system as a process where “human beings have been left to fester, crack up and die.”

While it is too late for Faysal Ishak Ahmed, there is  at least a little comfort that his death will be examined by the legal and constitutional affairs references committee, which is already inquiring into allegations of abuse of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru.  I am not sure there is much hope of change with this review, but at least it, and articles like Roger Cohen’s, continue to shine a light on the appalling situation on Manus and Nauru.

You can read the full article here.

faisal-ishak-ahmed
Faisal Ishak Ahmed