Volume 26 Issue 18 23 Jun 2017 29 Sivan 5777

Connecting our Community – Gesher

Sonia Newell – Development Officer

Refugee Week: 18-24 June 2017

During this very important week, it is appropriate to highlight the plight of some Vietnamese refugees and the good work done by Shira Sebban, Emanuel parent and School Board member, and other supporters.  

See Shira’s story which was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 June www.smh.com.au/world/turned-back-by-australia-vietnamese-recognised-as-refugees-in-indonesia-20170608-gwn475.html 

Shira spoke recently at Limmud Oz, about the story behind this news article. Here is her story:

Helping Vietnamese Families Rejected by Australia, by Shira Sebban

I recently went to Jakarta to visit 18 Vietnamese boat people, including 12 children, in detention, who have just been recognised as refugees by the UNHCR.

Two of the mothers had been facing lengthy prison terms in Vietnam for helping to organise ‘illegal’ departures to Australia on family-owned fishing boats in 2015.

At the end of January 2017, they fled Vietnam for Australia again, only to be rescued 10 days later from their sinking boat off the Java coast by Indonesian authorities.

The three families were among more than 100 Vietnamese asylum seekers intercepted in three separate incidents by the Australian navy in 2015-16. Assessed at sea and found not to warrant protection, they were forcibly returned after the Australian government received written assurance from its Vietnamese counterpart that returnees would not be punished. Several members of the three groups were subsequently incarcerated and mistreated. Last December, Australia and Vietnam signed a formal agreement to return “Vietnamese nationals with no legal right to enter or remain in Australia”.

I first became involved in helping to support these modern day Vietnamese boat people after reading a newspaper article about the plight of one of these families in mid-2016. Both parents had been punished with two- or three-year jail sentences by a Vietnamese court, while their four children, then aged 4-16, had been told to leave school and go to an orphanage because no one in their extended family could afford to look after them.

More than 100 Australians from all walks of life contributed $11,000 to our crowd fund – enough for their grandfather to care for the children for two years and for their parents to get back on their feet after they would be released from jail.

Since then, the number of families we are assisting via a second crowd fund has risen to five – close to 30 people – three families currently in Indonesia and two still in Vietnam. The focus of our campaign is to help feed, clothe and educate the children, who all face a precarious future. Please see www.gofundme.com/careforthechildren for more details.

My trip to Jakarta to meet the families for the first time was an emotional experience, which I shared recently at Limmud-Oz, and this week, with Rabbi Danny Siegel’s Year 9 class. It was particularly difficult because even though they have now been recognised as refugees, they are still in detention.

Together with an American Vietnamese volunteer refugee advocate based in Bangkok, we presented them with phone tablets purchased with funds raised, as well as books and stationary, so they can at least access educational resources on line. We also established a support network on the ground in Jakarta, with the help of some amazing local members of the Vietnamese community, who have been bringing necessities and visiting on a regular basis.

In addition, we have been advocating on their behalf, writing to the first Canadian Senator of Vietnamese origin, Thanh Hai Ngo, to ask whether Canada would consider taking them in as part of this year’s quota of 300,000 immigrants.

“Despite their assurance that refugees would face no sanctions or retributions for leaving the country, the government of Vietnam continues to jail, beat, torture and prosecute refugees returned to them by the Australian government,” Canadian Senator Thanh Hai Ngo said.

“The occurrence of these violations of basic human rights and civil liberties are at the core of why many are choosing to flee and are well known by the Canadian and Australian governments.”

I have also sent him copies of all their refugee cards, as well as an update on each of the family’s claims, which he has submitted to the highest authorities in Canada’s Immigration Department for immediate consideration, so let’s hope for a good result.

If you know anyone who might be interested in contributing to the children’s education and the families’ support, please refer them to www.gofundme.com/careforthechildren

Breakfast with Emanuel – Save the Day

Wednesday 2 August – The Little Space, Bondi Junction

Wednesday 9 August – KPMG, Barrangaroo

More details out soon.

If you have something of interest that you would like to share with our Emanuel community, please send it to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au