Media

J4RSA Media Releases

Media highlights

COVID-19 Information

Human Rights Law Centre (Victoria) Senate Submission:

'Urgent action needed to protect people held in immigration detention'

Kaldor Centre:

What about those left out of the stimulus package?

COVID-19: Some issues for asylum seekers and refugees in Australia

5 Questions about COVID-19 and people with temporary protection

 

Post-Federal Election - Know more about the issues and policies

Be part of the solution

  • Read J4RSA’s Fact Sheet to know what’s really happening
  • Consider J4RSA’s Scorecard to embrace a practical and humane policy alternative
  • Check out the Refugee Council of Australia’s “I choose humane”
  • Lobby local Federal Members of Parliament to recognize that most informed Australians have a compassionate and caring attitude toward refugees and that Government policy should reflect this widespread view
  • Change the conversation among friends and family to raise awareness of the realities behind Australia’s treatment of people seeking asylum and refugees
  • Become a supporter-member of Justice for Refugees

Justice for Refugees SA seeks to educate South Australians on issues around refugees and asylum seekers

If you're wanting to start a conversation with a friend or family member about refugees and the need to change policy here are some resources that could be of interest:

  • Our Stories has worked in collaboration with refugees to create four interactive stories. Go through David's here
  • Watch a video and read about 'Surviving the Ocean of Depression', created in collaboration with Dulwich Centre here
  • Across Land and Sea: Muzafar's true story of leaving Afghanistan in search of a better life in Australia. Explore his story here 

There are also some interesting statistics about the economic cost of offshore detention in comparison to living in the community on a bridging visa on the Kaldor Centre's website:

  • $400,000 a year to hold an asylum seeker in offshore detention
  • $239,000 to hold them in detention in Australia
  • Less than $100,000 for an asylum seeker to live in community detention
  • Around $40,000 for an asylum seeker to live in the community on a bridging visa while their claim is processed

Around the world, more say immigrants are a strength than a burden. Chart showing that half or more in many destination countries view immigrants as a strength rather than a burden. In 10 of the countries surveyed, majorities view immigrants as a strength rather than a burden. Among them are some of the largest migrant receiving countries in the world: the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia (each hosting more than 7 million immigrants in 2017).

 

Learn more about refugees and people seeking asylum

The latest news

For schools and teachers

Resources aimed at students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

Resources for Refugee Awareness in Schools

Hear the stories

Awareness Raising:

  • Community awareness raising, films, etc. on the Rural Australians for Refugees Calendar 
  • Love Makes a Way, a Christian interdenominational group concerned about the treatment of those seeking asylum. Members from this group have created a LMAW Music video, 5 years too long which highlights our treatment of those seeking asylum. See also the power-point LMAW slide show 2019 that includes case studies of those seeking asylum. The slide show has been created for church groups but can be adapted to suit particular needs.

Documentaries

  • Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time (2017)
    Directed by Behrouz Boochani and Arash Kamali Sarvestani
    Behrouz Boochani, a journalist who was persecuted for his journalism in Iran, was forced into hiding and fled Iran in 2013. He was intercepted by Australian authorities while attempting a boat crossing from Indonesia to Australia and incarcerated in the Manus Island detention centre. Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time was shot by Boochani from inside the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea.
  • Chasing Asylum (2016)
    Directed by Eva Orner
    Chasing Asylum features never-before-seen footage from inside Australia’s offshore detention camps, revealing the personal impact of sending those in search of a safe home to languish in limbo. Chasing Asylum explores the mental, physical and fiscal consequences of Australia’s decision to lock away families in unsanitary conditions hidden from media scrutiny—destroying their lives under the pretext of saving them.
  • Cast from the Storm (2016)
    Directed by David Mason
    Cast from the Storm is an award-winning Australian documentary that tells a tender story of transformation, acceptance and belonging.
  • Freedom Stories (2015)
    Directed by Steve Thomas
    Freedom Stories is a documentary-based project that brings together a collection of personal stories from former asylum seekers who sought asylum in Australia at a time of great political turmoil circa 2001, but who have long since dropped out of the media spotlight.
  • When Mary Met Mohammad (2013)
    Directed by Heather Kirkpatrick
    This film features Tasmania’s first detention centre through the eyes of local Christian woman and knitting club member, Mary, and Muslim-Afghan Hazara asylum seeker, Mohammad, who is detained inside the centre, as they connect through the gift of a knitted beanie.
  • Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea (2013)
    Directed by Jessie Taylor
    When she was 9 years old, Zainab’s parents made the heartbreaking decision to leave their home in northern Afghanistan. They set out on a journey across the globe, putting the fate of their family in the hands of strangers.
  • Leaky Boats (2011)
    Directed by Victoria Midwinter-Pitt
    Leaky Boats is a moving documentary about how the Australian Government used the refugee boats as a mechanism to boost its standing in the polls during the election to clinch a victory.