Nearly 100 local advocates and asylum seekers joined a 4.5km walk at Queenscliff in support of permanency for 8000 asylum seekers on June 21.
Queenscliff Big Walk for Refugees featured a broad sector of community from refugee advocates, reconciliation groups, faith groups, trade unionists, peace movements, the elderly and the young, walking alongside asylum seekers and refugees from countries including Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
The walk began with a short address from Queenscliff Rural Australians for Refugees convener Sue Longmore OAM and Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Nithi Kanakarathinam spoke with lived experience of the trauma of the past 13 years in Australia.
“I came, like so many others, to Australia by boat in 2012,” Mr Kanakarathinam said.
“We were all fleeing persecution in our homelands. It took four years after we arrived in Geelong for the Coalition government to allow us to apply for asylum. We were judged under a very unfair process called ‘Fast Track’ where many were refused and had limited right of appeal. Up to 8000 people have been denied permanency based on a decision made using the now-discredited Fast Track system.
“Thirteen years on they are still waiting for their refugee status to be resolved. They are here in a safe place, but they don’t have freedom and they still have fear.”
At the walk’s conclusion the community was encouraged to contact their Labor MPs and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke asking for a quick, simple transition to permanency for these people who have been a part of our communities for over 13 years.
