Community project not for all
Letter to the Editor - Daily Liberal (Dubbo)
8 January 2004
Dear Sir/Madam
You're comparing apples with oranges when you use the experiences of the Uniting Church in Victoria to suggest all asylum seekers should live in the community (Refugees pose no real threat, 7/1/04).
The Uniting Church's Asylum Seeker Project in Victoria deals mainly with asylum seekers who are lawfully in the community on a valid visa waiting for their application or appeal to be processed. These people have generally arrived by air on a valid visa, so we know who they are and where they are from.
However, overseas experiences demonstrate high levels of absconding for failed asylum seekers living in the community. Recently, a British newspaper reported that around 276,000 asylum seekers who have been ordered out of the United Kingdom over the past 12 years have now absconded. In Australia, 36 per cent of people in the community whose protection visa applications had failed remained here unlawfully in 2001-02. A further seven per cent only departed after having had some contact with the Department.
It is also worth noting that the majority of asylum seekers in Australia have entered with a valid visa and are free in the community while they pursue their claims.
Stewart Foster
Director
Public Affairs
DIMIA