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Refugee Week

Refugee week (June 19-25, 2022)  is a great opportunity to celebrate refugees and to engage your church in advocacy. 

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News and Events

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Recommended Reading

Refuge Reimagined. Biblical Kinship in Global Politics

Mark and Luke Glanville (IVP Academic, 2021). An exploration of the Biblical call to “welcome the stranger” and its meaning for how we respond to refugees today. Mark Glanville is an Old Testament scholar and associate professor at Regent College (Vancouver, Canada). Luke Glanville is an associate professor in the international relations department at the Australian National University.

Refugee Rights and Policy Wrongs

Jane McAdam and Fiona Chong (UNSW Press, 2019). In simple language McAdam and Chong explain international law on refugees, the inadequacy of Australia’s policy response, and expose widely believed myths. Jane McAdam is Scientia Professor of Law and Director of the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales. Fiona Chong is a lawyer and was recently a Human Rights Fellow in the Master of Laws program at Columbia University.

The Happiest Refugee

Ahn Do (Allen & Unwin, 2010). Australian comic and artist, Ahn Do, shares the story of his family’s flight from Vietnam after the Communist victory in a 20 year civil war. Just a child when the family boarded a boat seeking freedom, Ahn Do’s story takes us from his father’s incredible rescue of Ahn’s uncles from a “re-education” camp, their flight by boat, encounters with wild oceans and ruthless pirates, and their eventual settlement in Australia.

The People Smuggler

Robin DeCrespigny (Viking Books). The remarkable story of Ali Al Jenabi, who was tortured in Saddam Hussein’s Abu Ghraib prison, fought with the anti-Saddam resistance, was swindled by people smugglers in Indonesia, and established his own people smuggling operation to enable people fleeing violence in their home countries to make their way to Australia without becoming the prey of the unscrupulous, before himself arriving in Australia as a refugee.

Principles for Australian Refugee Policy

The Kaldor Center for International Refugee Law at the University of NSW (2022). This document, from one of the world’s leading refugee policy research groups, outlines seven principles that, in the view of the Kaldor Center’s experts, should guide Australia’s refugee policies and practices, explains why each principle is important, how each principle could be enacted and provides examples of how the principles have been put into effect elsewhere in the world.

FULLSUMMARY

Across the Seas. Australia's Response to Refugees. A History

Klaus Neumann (Black Inc, 2015). Historian Klaus Neumann explores Australia’s response to refugees from Federation (1901) until boats carrying asylum seekers started arriving in the late 1970s.

Helpful Websites

Christians United for Afghanistan

United for Afghanistan is a movement of Australian churches, NGOs and individual Christians calling the Australian Government to offer protection to 20,000 Afghani refugees in addition to our regular refugee intake and to ensure that Afghani refugees already in Australia receive the suppoort they need to begin a new life here.

United for Afghanistan Website

Refugee Council of Australia

The Refugee Council is Australia’s peak body for community organisations involved with refugees and asylum seekers. The website includes up-to-date statistics, refugee stories, developments in refugee policy, and advocacy campaigns you/your church can join.
REFUGEE COUNCIL WEBSITE

The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

The Kaldor Centre is a globally renowned research facility for international refugee law. The Centre produces both academic and popularly focussed resources that argue the case for evidence based, intellectually rigourous and compasionate policies.
KALDOR CENTRE WEBSITE

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

A community organisation providing assistance to refugees and asylum seekers, and with a strong advocacy focus.  You can access up-to-date news, policy positions, asylum seeker stories, and advocacy campaigns.
ASRC WEBSITE

Refugee Week

Refugee week is held in June each year (the Sunday to Saturday that incorporates June 20, which is World Refugee Day). The website points to events you can attend; creative ways you and your church can celebrate refugees; links to films, books, stories; and more.
REFUGEE WEEK WEBSITE

United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)(

UNHCR coordinates global efforts to provide protection to refugees. At the UNHCR website you will find lots of stories, a variety  of reports, and statistical data. The Global Report, released every year around June, is probably the best source of information on refugee and asylum seeker movements and circumstances across the globe.
UNHCR WEBSITE