Refugees call for freedom from fear
Image: Supporters gathered for the launch of refugee week on Saturday. Photo: Christina Goodman
The theme of last week’s refugee week, Freedom from Fear was celebrated by activities including art exhibitions, talks, sporting events and coincided with a protest rally against mandatory detention.
Gracia Ngoy, who fled her homeland of the Congo in 2005 aged 14, and who won 2011 Australian young volunteer of the year for her community work, said at the launch that she was grateful to call herself Australian.
She also spoke out against the misinterpretations that many Australian’s have of refugees, and highlighted the educational and employment barriers they face.
“One mistake that the community makes”, she said “is to generalise refugees without taking into consideration that they are all individuals”, she said.
“Since I arrived here in Australia, in 2005, I have had no choice but to work very hard, extremely hard to reach the standard of my colleagues.”
“I was always being placed in the lowest English class, the lowest maths class, because this is what was expected. I had to fight.”
“When it comes to employment, in general terms, it is very difficult”, she said. “There is a lot of pressure, for refugees to perform as well as the mainstream, regardless of the barriers they face”.
Coincidentally, thousands of activists gathered at Town Hall on Sunday to rally for an end to mandatory detention, and protest against the government’s asylum seeker policy.
Speaking at the rally, Green’s senator Sarah Hanson-Young condemned the proposed government deal with Malaysia to swap UN ratified refugees with unprocessed asylum seekers that arrive in Australia.
“It is of course, obscene, the idea of sending very vulnerable men, women and children, who have come here to Australia for protection, to a country like Malaysia, without any guarantees that they are going to be protected,” said Senator Hanson-Young.
