History
ARA - Over 30 Years of Experience
Since the Australian Refugee Association (ARA) was first created as the Indo-China Refugee Association in 1975 it has expanded its work to include people escaping persecution in any country. It uses a broad definition of a refugee to include others such as asylum seekers, their families, and migrants in need.
ARA assists people to move forward from the refugee experience, rebuild their lives and their community, live in dignity and become contributing members of the Australian community. ARA also works with the Australian community, deepening their understanding of the refugee experience, involving people in practical ways by volunteering and providing both practical and financial assistance.
While ARA has received various grants and funds to carry out programs, it relies on public support for much of its work. ARA puts a high priority on its advocacy role for individual cases and its contribution to developing refugee policy.
ARA is governed by a Board of Management whose members are elected from the community. It provides services using both paid staff and volunteers.
ARA is a non-government organisation and registered charity. As the longest serving organisation assisting the settlement of refugees in South Australia, ARA has evolved and adapted over time to meet the many and varied challenges created by each new refugee crisis around the world.
Where did it all begin? 1975-1985
During April and May 1975 a number of cataclysmic events happened in Indo-China. The Republic of Vietnam was overthrown by the Hanoi-based government. The Khmer Rouge (the Kampuchean Communist Party) entered Phnom Penh and with a military coup gained power in Cambodia, which it renamed Kampuchea. Across the border, the Pathet Lao managed to take control of the whole of Laos. These brutal events and their after-shocks caused hundreds of thousands of Indo-Chinese men, women and children to flee into refugee camps in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines. They fled by foot and by boat, with many living in floating refugee boat-camps. Between 1975 and 1980 over 300,000 refugees were settled in western countries, mostly the USA. Inexplicably, the Australian Whitlam Government’s initial reaction to the crisis was to reject nearly all the refugees.
In Adelaide, in June 1975, a concerned group of people met in Don and Mary Whitelum’s home to plan a community response. By November that year the non-political, non-sectarian Indo-China Refugee Association (ICRA) was officially incorporated. Don Simpson was elected as the association’s first President and was assisted by an effective and growing team of dedicated volunteers. ICRA was formed to challenge the Government’s stance, to promote the intake and welfare of Indo-Chinese refugees in both Australia and overseas camps, as well as to provide critical re-settlement services. ICRA went national with alliances of like minded state based groups in Victoria, NSW, ACT and QLD.
In 1976, ICRA’s then President, Father Jefferies Foale CP, travelled to Thailand and toured a number of refugee camps including one at Nongkhai. On his journey Father Foale learnt that being a refugee meant fear, hunger and being unwanted: fear of persecution and seeing loved ones killed; fear of the perils of escape and being captured; fear for those left behind. To be a refugee meant hunger. Many people were starving whilst living in appalling, overcrowded camp conditions. Being a refugee meant being unwanted by the Thai government and the world. Unwanted - without a passport, a country, or a place to call home. Father Foale and other ICRA supporters returned frequently to Thailand. Their experiences and reports of the atrocious camp conditions and inadequate Australian government responses to the crisis proved a powerful driving force behind ICRA.
Over many years ICRA made significant and regular donations to:
Kampuchean refugees through Project Vietnam Orphans at Aranyaprathet; Kampuchean refugees through Medicines Sans Frontiers at two border camps in Sakeaw; Vietnamese refugees in Indonesia through Father Piet Hoedemakers; Lao refugees at Nongkhai through Father Richard Thiele; Hmong refugees at Nam Yao Camp through Tom Dooley Heritage; as well as emergency aid through people visiting camps.
In April 1976, the first 50 Indo-Chinese refugees arrived in Adelaide and were housed at the Pennington Hostel, previously used for post war European refugees. For most of the refugees it was the first time they had left their provinces. They spoke no English and had little or no prior contact with western society. ICRA opened an office within the Hostel and quickly went to work. Within six months all 50 people had found jobs and accommodation and were living independent and dignified lives within the community. No other state or charitable group was so organised. ICRA become known for ‘getting things done.’ Consequently the Government sent more refugees to Adelaide because of ICRA’s effectiveness and support network. This level of success was a national precedent.
ICRA worked hard at all levels of society, advocating for increased intake quotas of refugees. It also sought to prioritise family reunions as many of the Government’s policies and practices split families. ICRA was instrumental in improvements to official procedures through its formation of and continuous participation in numerous advisory and advocacy bodies.
In April 1976, when the first refugees started arriving in Darwin by boat, ICRA challenged the knee-jerk reactions and racist public outcries. The small boat carrying five refugees from Vietnam was the first of 56 such boats to arrive over the next six years.
ICRA set about promoting the benefits refugees bring to the nation. The need for raising public awareness has unfortunately not diminished and remains a critical function of the organisation to this day. Many of the media representations and arguments about ‘illegal Vietnamese boat people’ in the 1970’s mirror those applied to Middle Eastern ‘boat people’ in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
In July 1978 Immigration Minister the Right Hon. M.J.R MacKellar MHR announced that the so-called ‘boat people’ were not ‘illegal immigrants’ and it was not illegal to be a refugee. National Newspaper, The Australian (24/4/79) reported MacKellar as saying, “Refugees arriving by boat are no longer considered queue jumpers.” For most western countries if you were leaving a Communist country, you must be a refugee. “Case by case” determination came later.
At the same time there was a ground-swell of support for refugees. Finding housing became a primary function of ICRA. Hundreds of South Australians participated in ICRA’s Host Families Program by providing accommodation or support for newly-arrived refugees. This organised community response meant that refugees had a greater chance of selection by Australian officials in overseas camps. It also established enduring relationships between Indo-Chinese refugees and ordinary Australians.
The introduction of the Community Refugee Settlement Scheme (CRSS) by the Department of Immigration in the late 70s meant community groups and churches were able to sponsor refugees directly from the overseas camps and provide settlement plans. This expanded the size and scope of ICRA’s hosting service. In December 1979 the first Indo-Chinese families were settled in Whyalla. By 1985, refugee families were also living in Mt Gambier, Crystal Brook, Pt Pirie, Naracoorte, Broken Hill and Gawler. The largest CRSS project was in Renmark where the local people utilised the school to house the new arrivals.
The care of youth, unaccompanied minors and orphans of war was another of ICRA’s priorities. In 1979 a youth drop-in centre was established. ICRA worked closely with the United Nation and High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) tracing program on the relocation of 800 orphaned Khmer children living in Thai refugee camps. Previously the selection teams from the various resettlement countries selected families as first preference, then women and left the minors behind, some of whom had been child soldiers and were seen as a drain on a country’s resources. This meant that over the years the numbers of unaccompanied youth left in the camps increased. After much lobbying the government developed a special program to bring unaccompanied minors and orphans to Australia.
ICRA’s Foster Home Program for the mainly teenage children was set up with Australian Society for Intercountry Aid Children (ASIAC). A number of the ASIAC members were instrumental in the formation of ICRA and have been long-term supporters of the organisation.
ICRA’s Cottage Homes, later called the Mekong Homes Project, were set up to house unaccompanied youth and help them continue their education. At its peak ICRA rented houses in Grange, Maylands, Plympton, Ottoway, Glanville, Glandore and Prospect. The homes housed up to 20 youths aged between 15-25, and each home had an Indo-Chinese or Australian ‘housekeeper’ and mentor. This ICRA initiative was so successful that the homes later attracted funding through the Federal Government’s Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP).
Through the CALFRIC (Committee for Allocating Loan Funds to Refugees from Indo China), ICRA provided loans for many purposes, such as to set up small businesses. A partnership with the Ecumenical Housing Association, SA Housing Trust and the West Torrens Uniting Church, and known as the the St. Claire housing scheme, enabled refugee families to buy their own houses. Developing partnerships such as this, with a wide range of organisations was integral to the success of much of ICRA’s work.
ICRA’s Project 1980 was a very successful family-reunion initiative that aimed to clear the camps of long-term refugees. ICRA sent the names and addresses of 700 relatives living in Australia to Immigration Minister MacKellar. Within ten months 500 families had been reunited in Australia.
ICRA championed the cause of increasing Kampuchean refugee quotas, since they were comparatively under-represented in relation to other Indo-Chinese groups. Through the work of Father Foale and the Passionist order of which he is a member, the Monastery Refugee Project (MRP) was set up in 1982. Located in the tranquil setting of St. Pauls Retreat in Glen Osmond, the MRP provided sanctuary to 1,100 Kampucheans before its closure in 1984. It became the largest and most successful refugee resettlement scheme outside of government migrant hostels.
A New Era 1983-1995
In May 1983 Kevin Liston was appointed Welfare Officer which marked new directions for the organisation. By the mid-80’s, ICRA’s role was changing. Its functions were becoming more complex with less international focus and more intensive localised support of refugees in the form of social work services, welfare, community development and crisis management.
In 1984, ICRA developed its own migration and legal service, providing advice in Chinese, Vietnamese and Trieu Chau languages. Communication and cultural understanding through the association’s close relationships with communities were the essential foundations of ICRA’s professionalism and quality service.
Knowing that once settled, refugees are an asset to the Australian community, ICRA invested a lot of time and resources into helping refugees form their own community organisations and support structures. These groups were now able to provide many additional services for their constituent communities but often lacked the expertise in coping with Australian administrative requirements and general settlement problems. ICRA was able to assist with this acting as a springboard for fledgling communities by providing advice, financial assistance, resources or office space.
When the Government cut refugee intakes by 25% in 1985 and introduced the Special Humanitarian Program (SHP), refugees became responsible for paying their own airfares. This caused great financial stress for refugees and new challenges for ICRA, as many people fell into debt while still desperately seeking jobs.
Different ethnic groups were coming to Australia as refugees by the late 80s. Like the Indo-Chinese refugees before them, they arrived without an established community network to offer extra support. ICRA began assisting people from South America, particularly Chile and El Salvador, as well as Honduras and Guatemala.
During this time the Department of Immigration Local Government and Ethnic Affairs (DILGEA) requested that ICRA become involved in working with the Australian Latin American Institute to provide a quality settlement service. Through this partnership the Combined Latin American Support Program (CLASP) was established.
Around the same time, significant numbers of Ba’hai refugees from Iran began arriving under the Humanitarian Program. ARA conducted research into the community’s settlement in South Australia.
ICRA’s Camp Clearance program was a response to the UNHCR’s Geneva conferences in 1984 and 1989. Australia gave a commitment to settle 11,000 long-term refugees from camps in Asia. This brought back old challenges as this group of Indo-Chinese refugees didn’t have family connections and personal networks in Australia. ICRA adapted the Host Families Scheme and called it the Refugee Aid and Support Program (RASP). Again supporters opened their homes to welcome and house Indo–Chinese refugees.
ICRA was proudly one of the earliest proponents of the Case Management Model to address the needs of new arrivals. This personalised service meant ICRA could effectively deal with the individual complexities of each person’s experience and needs. As the model was refined and adopted by others, ICRA became a leading exponent of case management techniques.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s refugees from Africa began arriving in Australia. Ethiopians, Eritreans, and later Somalians and Sudanese, as well as small numbers from other countries including Chad and South Africa were facing the challenges of being the first arrivals from their respective homelands. With ICRA’s help they became cultural pioneers for their compatriots and quickly formed their own community associations.
During the time when the Ethiopian Community and Arabic Language School both ran small part time offices from ICRA’s premises, Afghani refugees began arriving. Through its settlement work, ICRA was able to establish a sound relationship with this community and assisted the emerging Afghan Association in capacity-building.
In 1989, ICRA President Reverend Martin Chittleborough was approached by AUSTCARE to form a local organising committee for National Refugee Week. The aim of this annual campaign was to raise community awareness and understanding of refugees and issues relevant to their situation. ICRA was well represented on the committee by volunteers and staff. The committee attacked its task with creativity and vigour. In 1990, for example, a mock refugee camp was set up for a week adjacent to St. Peters Cathedral. It had a powerful impact. Visitors were issued with identity numbers, locked in by guards and briefly experienced camp life.
ICRA had long recognised the particular problems of the survivors of torture. Successive Refugee Weeks highlighted the need for a specialist centre to address their need. The SA Refugee Week Committee invited speakers from the newly started services in NSW and Victoria to raise awareness at the first public meeting. Following this ICRA offered accommodation, office assistance and auspiced the fledgling organisation. The SA organisation was called Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service (STTARS) and initially operated from ICRA’s Athol Park office. The nature of the service required it to be seen to be separate from any other organisation, and as soon as possible it moved to its own premises. However, the relationship between the two organisations has continued to be strong.
A New Name
In recognition of the growth, and widening scope of the organisation’s client group, the Indo-Chinese Refugee Association (SA) Inc. changed its name to ICRA •The Refugee Association Inc. By 1994 the Refugee Association’s client list read like a directory of UN members. This prompted a further name change with the organisation becoming the Australian Refugee Association Inc. (ARA) to reflect its great depth of experience in resettlement.
In 1992, ARA collaborated with STTARS and the SA Council of Churches to establish the SA branch of ANCCORW – Australian National Consultative Committee on Refugee Women. This national advocacy and action movement empowered refugee women by helping them to develop a range of personal skills. When the national body of ANCCORW concluded its work in 1996, ARA and STTARS agreed to continue the service and formed their own Refugee Women’s Group.
1992 was also the year that the Immigration Minister announced a ‘Special Assistance’ migration category for refugees from the Soviet Union, Albania, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, East Timor and Lebanon.
In 1993, ARA founded the African Support Group to advocate and lobby on issues facing African refugees. The group included representatives from the refugee Association, STTARS, African communities and Community Refugee Settlement Service groups and the Department of Immigration.
In early 1992, the Immigration Minister announced a ‘Special Assistance’ migration category for refugees from the Soviet Union, Albania, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, East Timor and Lebanon. Added to the Indo-Chinese, African, Middle Eastern and Latin American clients, the role and scope of ICRA now changed dramatically.
From Strength to Strength 1995-2005
In 1995, ARA was awarded a contract through the then Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) to case-manage 200 long-term unemployed job-seekers from Non-English Speaking backgrounds. This was a new concept designed to help those having difficulty finding employment due to language and cultural difficulties. Case-managers worked one-one-one with people to identify obstacles and solutions, act as mentors, and advocate with providers of training and employment. Such was the success of this service that ARA Jobs Pty Ltd. was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of ARA. It has expanded its services and is still the State’s only specialist Cultural and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Job Network provider.
ARA’s expertise in managing the settlement of refugees has meant that ARA is in a unique position to undertake qualitative research. A number of research projects have been published over the years with the largest being the study of the settlement of Cambodian refugees in SA called Resuming Settled Lives – Cambodian Refugees in Adelaide (Dr. C.Stevens, DIMIA:1997).
Unfortunately many of the issues seen in this decade replicate those of the time when the organisation first began. In the late 90s fear and misinformation were rife within the public domain as a new wave of Muslim and Middle Eastern asylum seekers started arriving by boat. These new arrivals were forced into mandatory detention centres for indefinite periods. Consequently, our work with asylum seekers continues to the present day and has brought us into close relationships with larger numbers of Afghani, Iraqi, Iranian and Kurdish people, as well as minority religious and cultural groups.
In recent times, the issue of detention has become a key public social justice debate and has rallied thousands of supporters for refugees and asylum seekers. Similar large-scale public support and compassion was shown in 1999 for the refugees from Kosovar. ARA was a focal point for donations during this time and also assisted with programs to support the 4,000 Kosovar refugees given the controversial temporary ‘Safe Haven Visas’ in Australia.
To further assist asylum seekers, ARA created a team of highly dedicated migration agents and case workers to work on the Temporary Protection Visa and Refugee Review Tribunal (TPV/RRT) Project. Our agents have the difficult task of helping refugees and asylum seekers to appeal rejections of visa applications by the Refugee Review Tribunal. Preparing the submissions, especially the country case notes detailing current political climates and human rights abuses, is a crucial part of their work. Other ARA migration agents work with people seeking initial asylum and with Proposers who are trying to bring relatives and friends from overseas refugee camps.
October 2000 was a particularly difficult time due to the restructuring by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) of its funding for settlement services. As a result staff members were reduced to 3.6 (full time equivalent). The staff, though reduced somewhat, set about providing services for existing clients, new arrivals and rebuilding the organisation.
At that time South Australia was receiving an average of 600 refugees a year through the offshore program. In 2001, South Australia also needed to support 1,200 people released from detention with a Temporary Protection Visa. This meant more work but with less resources than before. Being an innovative organisation with no core funding but with an abundance of passion and community spirit, ARA focused on what was needed - not what was lost.
The introduction by the Federal Government of the International Humanitarian Settlement Strategy (IHSS) in late 2000, meant that for the first time ARA was able to cover costs for its early settlement services. With the IHSS program, ARA has been an essential “port of call” for all refugee arrivals to South Australia.
Under the IHSS, ARA has had particular responsibility for those who come under the Special Humanitarian Program and are nominated by Proposers. The Proposers are usually former refugees. As they may have arrived relatively recently, they usually need significant help with bringing and settling their relatives and friends.
The increasing numbers of African, largely Sudanese refugees, settling in South Australia has brought yet another unique set of challenges for ARA: many have spent years or even decades in refugee camps; families are often large; and unaccustomed to urban environments. The culture shock and adjustment to metropolitan Adelaide can be particularly difficult for some. Yet once established, refugees become a valuable asset to the community. Again, it is through the establishment of close working partnerships with African communities and the initiation of inter-agency groups like the African Workers Network, which ensures that ARA provides the optimum professional and culturally-appropriate assistance to our newest arrivals.
Since 2002, ARA has given support to the Circle of Friends (CoF). The CoF advocate for the release of asylum seekers from detention and help support people with Temporary Protection Visas and Bridging Visas. This highly effective network began in South Australia but has an ever increasing membership, branching out into Victoria, NSW, ACT, WA and Queensland. In August 2005 there are 71 active circles around the nation with approximately 2,500 members.
In 2005, DIMIA again restructured its funding for settlement services. As a result ARA was no longer paid to provide initial settlement services to offshore refugee and humanitarian entrants. However, the DIAC funding limits settlement support to only six months. The next stage of resettlement is the rest of their lives.
Services provided by ARA:
• Advice on common legal matters
• Advocacy
• Assistance with travel loans (IOM)
• Bi-cultural workers
• Case Work
• Community and cultural orientation
• Community capacity building - refugee communities and the Australian public
• Computer & Internet – free access
• Counselling and advice
• Development of public policy
• Donation Centre
• Emergency financial assistance
• Employment assistance
• Facilitating refugees to maintain their traditions
• Family Programs
• Homework Clubs
• Migration advice and assistance
• Proposer and family support
• Public education
• Refugee Youth support
• Scholarship fund
• Student Placements
• Support from over 250 trained volunteers
• Walk in Service
• Youth Activities
ARA’s services continue to adapt to the changing circumstances and needs of refugees. The staff and volunteers at ARA constantly seek funding to provide a full a range of services for refugees. Significant efforts are put into raising ARA’s profile and maximising the community support we receive.
Undoubtedly the future will present ARA with many new challenges as unforeseen events unfold around the world. For ARA, the constant challenge is to secure adequate resources to service the complex needs of refugees during their arrival, initial settlement, and their subsequent journey to becoming citizens living independent and dignified lives. ARA will answer this challenge by drawing upon its 30+ years of experience and expertise. It has been a quiet achiever. It is renowned for its resourcefulness and efficacy. ARA’s enthusiastic and dynamic staff is motivated by the fact that we make a real difference to people who are rebuilding their lives.
