AFRICAN REFUGEES WELCOME IN AUSTRALIA: RACIST MINISTER SLAMMED!

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Kerryn Williams

19 October 2007


Claims by immigration minister Kevin Andrews that African refugees are
less capable of resettling in Australia than other migrant groups have
been met with widespread condemnation by welfare, community and human
rights organisations.

Andrews’ racist assertions were an attempt to justify his government’s
reduction of the African refugee quota to a mere 30% of Australia’s
total annual humanitarian intake (a shamefully low total of just 13,000
places). This 30% quota has already been reached this financial year,
so
no new applications will be considered until next July.

Andrews told media in early October that “some groups” weren’t
adequately “adjusting to the Australian way of life”, so “it makes
sense
to put the extra money into providing extra resources, but also to slow
down the rate of intake from countries such as Sudan”. With nothing
more
than anecdotal “evidence” to back up his claims, Andrews cited serious
problems with African youths forming gangs and engaging in crime.

Infamous xenophobe Pauline Hanson immediately jumped on the bandwagon
to
endorse the government’s move with one of her signature racist
diatribes. “Do you want to see your daughter or a family member end up
with AIDS”, ABC News Online quoted her asking, as she claimed that
further African immigration would increase crime and violence and lead
to an increase not only in HIV infections, but also leprosy!

Federal Labor, in predictable “me too” fashion, responded to Andrews’
Tampa-style pre-election scapegoating campaign by announcing its
support
for cutting the African refugee intake.

The corporate media wasted no time in launching a sensationalist
fearmongering campaign. The October 8 edition of ABC’s Media Watch
exposed the blatant manufacture by channels 7, 9 and 10 in their
October
3 Melbourne news coverage of a story about “Sudanese gangs” supposedly
creating terror. All used as “evidence” footage of violence and theftin
a Noble Park bottle shop. However Media Watch showed that none of those
filmed engaging in violence were Africans. The single African youth
visible was not participating in the affray, and was later revealed to
be 18-year-old Sudanese-born Liep Gony, who was bashed to death in late
September.

However the facts began to emerge amid the hysteria, as migrant service
organisations, the human rights commissioner and even the police
rejected Andrews’ fabrications. Victorian police commissioner Christine
Nixon told 3AW radio that “When you look at the numbers we’re talking
about, the young Sudanese who actually come into custody or dealt with
us, only really make up about 1% of the people we deal with … they’re
not, in a sense, representing more than the proportion of them in the
population”.

After Andrews had used Gony’s murder as an example of violence among
Sudanese migrants, it was revealed that those charged over the brutal
attack were not Sudanese, but white Australians.

In an open letter to the government published in the Australian’s
education supplement on October 9, 165 university academics including a
range of health experts stated that “We know of no empirical evidence
that refugees from particular countries find it more difficult to
integrate into Australian society compared to others”, adding that
“Australia has a responsibility to ensure the trauma of the refugee
experience is not further exacerbated by racism and discrimination in
the resettlement context.”

Sudanese community leaders strongly objected to the racist slander,
denying allegations of Sudanese youth gangs. Choul Deng Gai from the
Sudanese Community Association of Australia told AAP that groups of
Sudanese gather together not as gangs but to socialise. “It is
something
very national and cultural. It doesn’t pose any threat to anyone”, he
explained.

Haidar Abdalla, secretary-general of the Liverpool Australian Sudanese
Community, told Green Left Weekly that he was shocked by Andrews’
statement and that his community had been deeply affected. He said many
of the kids in his community — who had felt settled here, “playing
rugby
and cricket and having barbeques” — now “cry, they say they want tostay
home and not go to school because they are being told they are not
Australian”.

In a June 15 letter to the Liverpool Australian Sudanese Community,
Andrews had written that the federal government would continue to
accept
refugees from Africa and that it acknowledged the Sudanese community in
Liverpool was “contributing greatly to Australia’s future”. Abdalla
asked: “Why did he change his mind? What are the hidden reasons? Is it
for the election?”

Abdalla highlighted the absurdity of Hanson’s claims that African
refugees spread disease in Australia, explaining that “before getting
an
entry visa, refugees must pass the medical check”.

Andrews’ claims about the failure of refugees to “integrate” says more
about the lack of adequate services provided by his government than the
behaviour of new arrivals. “What do you do to help Sudanese people to
integrate into Australia?” Abdalla wants to ask Andrews, citing long
waiting lists for furthering English and other studies.

According to the October 4 Melbourne Age, local south Sudanese
community
leader Gatwech Kulang also called for greater resettlement assistance:
“There are a lot of NGOs and service providers that are doing the work,
but not working together with the community.”

When Andrews announced the refugee cutbacks in August, he stated that
“[t]he intake from the Africa region reflects an improvement in
conditions in some countries and an increase in the number of people
returning to their country of origin”. However the war in Darfur in
Sudan’s west, which has so far cost the lives of more than 450,000
people and displaced millions, continues; vast elements of the peace
agreement that ended the war with the country’s south remain
unimplemented and little rebuilding or improvement in people’s living
conditions has occurred in the south; and throughout Sudan all people
suffer as they are denied democratic rights and their basic needs are
neglected while resources are diverted into the military budget.

The cuts have increased the stress and uncertainty for those who are
desperately waiting for family members to join them in Australia. “Many
have family waiting in Kenya or Cairo. Now they have to wait at least
another 10 months and we don’t know what will happen after July”,
Abdalla said.

Andrews’ lies have also encouraged racist abuse and violence against
African migrants. ABC News reported on October 10 that according to
John
Moi from the Sudanese community in the NSW town of Wagga Wagga,
Sudanese
migrants have been vilified on the streets since Andrews’ outburst.

Abdalla told GLW that on October 11, a group of up to 12 young people
making racist taunts attacked some Sudanese youths who were walking
along the street in Liverpool. One young Sudanese man had to undergo an
operation in Liverpool hospital the following day after his jaw was
broken.

On October 9 in the Melbourne suburb of Melton, a young Sudanese-born
man was bashed by four men who stole his mobile phone and wallet,
before
using his phone to send racist messages to the victim’s brother.

Adelaide’s Sunday Mail reported on October 14 that Simon Angok,
secretary of the Sudanese Australian Community of South Australia,
wrote
a letter demanding an apology from Andrews, arguing that his
“discriminatory and insensitive comments” amount to the “demonisation
of
a community of people who have suffered and escaped from the tyranny of
brutal dictatorship”. He wrote that the government’s stance had “caused
a lot of anger, grief and anxiety in our community, let alone inciting
racist people to attack members of our community”.

An open letter signed by more than 60 organisations including the
Refugee Council of Australia, the National Council of Churches in
Australia, Amnesty International, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and
Human Rights Commission, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, the
Liquor
Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers’ Union and the Australian
Federation of Islamic Councils Inc, was published in the Australian,
urging “all Australians, particularly our elected representatives, to
stand up in support of African refugees who have resettled in
Australia,
to support their further resettlement and family reunification, and to
strengthen services that make the transition to Australia easy”.

AAP reported on October 5 that the Federation of African Communities
Council was lodging a complaint of racial discrimination with the Human
Rights Commission. The organisation’s chairperson, Abeselom Nega, said
as a result of the denigration of the African community, “we are
exploring all options including using the legal framework of this
country to lodge our complaint, and we will be exploring international
frameworks as well to ensure the human rights and equal opportunity of
our members are protected”.

Abdalla told GLW that a meeting was being planned in Liverpool on
October 28 aiming to bring together the different parts of the Sudanese
community and local MPs to discuss how to respond to Andrews. More than
200 people attended a public meeting in Wagga Wagga on October 13
called
by local Sudanese leaders.

From: Australian News, Green Left Weekly issue #728

LINK REFERENCE 24 October 2007.