Bellarine residents take a walk for refugees

COMMUNITY members on the Bellarine are preparing to gather this weekend for a 4km walk to show support to the more than 10,000 refugees across the country living in visa limbo.

The event forms part of the inaugural Big Walk 4 Refugees, a nationwide, six-week virtual walk around Australia, marking one year since the federal government announced almost 20,000 asylum seekers were eligible to apply for permanent residency.

Despite the move, a further estimated 12,000 refugees continue to live with the stress of visa uncertainty.

Many of these asylum seekers have now been living in communities across Australia for more than a decade.

Local advocacy group, Queenscliff Rural Australians for Refugees (QRAR), will facilitate the local leg of the event tomorrow (Saturday, March 23).

“The majority of fair-minded people are horrified; they can’t believe the suffering that these 10,000 people have been through,” QRAR convenor Sue Longmore said.

“They’ve been here 10 years… how long do you wait – a lifetime – to declare someone a threat?

“They’ve proved themselves willing to do whatever it takes to be good citizens here, and they have been. They just need to be able to be citizens.”

The Big Walk 4 Refugees began on began on February 13 and will conclude on March 26 with a final local walk to Parliament House in Canberra.

The action was inspired by several refugee-led movements which last year saw asylum seekers walk and cycle thousands of kilometres across the country to bring awareness to the impacts of visa uncertainty.

Already participants in the Big Walk 4 Refugees have travelled more than 31,000 kilometres.

Ms Longmore said the walk was an opportunity to raise awareness and to try to capture the attention of politicians and show them “we’re still here and we’re not going away”.

“It relies on more people in community speaking up to their parliamentarians and pushing and saying this is really important to us.

“We voted for you because we thought you would do something for this group, and you haven’t, and we’ll have to think twice at the next election.”

Participants will meet at 10am at the Queenscliff Marine Science Discovery Centre carpark at 2A Bellarine Highway, Queenscliff, where speakers will address the crowd.

The group will then walk along the ‘Narrows’ rail trail through to Springs Beach, Point Lonsdale before returning along the same path to the Discovery Centre.

Those attending are encouraged to bring signs to carry while they walk, as well as sturdy shoes and weather appropriate clothing.

Registration for the walk is not necessary, and everyone is welcome to join the group for the walk.

It follows a similar local gathering hosted by the Combined Refugee Action Group held last weekend at Geelong’s waterfront.