![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/B07K0716-LauraConnor_86020.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTORQUAY refugee advocate Laura Connor says the only way Australia will make progress on the issue is if everyone walks a mile in the shoes of refugees.<\/p>\n
The theme of this year\u2019s Refugee Week (June 20-26) is \u201cUnity \u2013 a way forward\u201d and Ms Connor, a member of the Surf Coast Rural Australians for Refugees, said the theme resonated especially strongly given recent developments surrounding the Tamil refugees known as the Biloela family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do need to do is find a way forward, because it\u2019s obvious the people of Australia are having a fresh look at the whole refugee\/asylum seeker situation, and I think we have to find a way forward, otherwise this will go on and on and on, and we need to find a solution,\u201d Ms COnnor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s this family, and it\u2019s been four years, but there are so many thousands of others in that situation, and the world is a very different place than it was when this whole thing started so long ago, when people first started coming here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should embrace unity, to find a way that is just and fair, and to show a little bit of compassion and maybe just walk a mile in someone else\u2019s shoes, because these people have fled war-torn countries, and famine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not far off people who are going to be escaping environmental dangers, it\u2019s going to be part of our future, so we\u2019re going to have to find a way to deal with it and take our responsibility in the world that need our help.\u201d<\/p>\n
SCRAR started in 2002 and now has about 70 members and supporters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ms Connor joined the group about eight years ago, and the Corangamite Grandmothers Against Refugee Detention (CGRAD) more recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just got to the point where I thought it was so unfair and unjust that I felt that I couldn\u2019t keep just being angry about it; I had to do something constructive and encourage our politicians to create policies with justice and fairness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course there are laws, but we can approach this in a more humanitarian way.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the several local refugee advocacy groups \u2013 including SCRAR, CGRAD, Aireys Inlet RAR, Queenscliff RAR, and the Combined Refugee Action Group \u2013 had helped many refugee families across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these visas are very cruel, because people can\u2019t work, they can\u2019t study, they can\u2019t earn money, they don\u2019t have benefits; there are so many different visas.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticularly during COVID, there are families that just rely on the goodwill of people who are helping them with food and money donations; just keeping them going.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think it\u2019s lovely to see that there is goodwill out there, and many of these families that we\u2019ve met have been the most lovely people, and their courage to keep going against all adversity is\u00a0just extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TORQUAY refugee advocate Laura Connor says the only way Australia will make progress on the issue is if everyone walks a mile in the shoes of refugees. The theme of this year\u2019s Refugee Week (June 20-26) is \u201cUnity \u2013 a way forward\u201d and Ms Connor, a member of the Surf Coast Rural Australians for Refugees, […]<\/p>\n