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Lunchtime Lecture: Panel – Welcome or Not? Refugees and Australia: What has changed?

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Lunchtime Lecture: Panel – Welcome or Not? Refugees and Australia: What has changed?

N/A

Wednesday 7 March
1.00pm

FREE 

Asked about their arrival in Australia, many survivors will tell you that “Australia welcomed us with open arms”. Australia was seen as the lucky country, a paradise, the land of the fair go, easy-going and beautiful. How accurate was this assessment and what, if anything, has changed? Please join us for this panel discussion, where you will have the opportunity to consider Australia’s treatment of refugees, both past and present, from the perspective of a historian, a modern-day refugee, a human rights lawyer, and a volunteer refugee advocate.

Maria Knudson was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. Losing her father at the age of 9, she experienced the horrors of the civil war, which has ravaged the country for the past 27 years. Forced to leave her family behind in Somalia, she made her way through Dubai, Malaysia and Indonesia, followed by a perilous boat journey to Australia. Detained on Christmas Island and then on Nauru, she was eventually released from Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and remains in community detention.

Alison Battisson is the founder and Director Principal of the charitable law firm, Human Rights for All (HR4A). HR4A focuses on complex cases and long-term asylum seeker detainees, and is one of the few law firms that offers pro bono assistance in places of detention. HR4A is committed to fighting the discriminatory practices of arbitrary detention in Australia and offshore, liaising with the UN, the International Criminal Court and other international organisations.

Volunteer refugee advocate and writer, Shira Sebban strives to support Vietnamese failed asylum seekers, intercepted at sea by Australia and forcibly returned to Vietnam, where several have since been incarcerated. Shira is a newly minted SJM guide, who aims to combine lessons learned from Jewish history and notably the Holocaust with her passion for social justice. A long-time board member of Emanuel School, she is also a member of SASS (Supporting Asylum Seekers Sydney), regularly visiting asylum seekers in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre.

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Wednesday 7 March
1.00pm

FREE 

Asked about their arrival in Australia, many survivors will tell you that “Australia welcomed us with open arms”. Australia was seen as the lucky country, a paradise, the land of the fair go, easy-going and beautiful. How accurate was this assessment and what, if anything, has changed? Please join us for this panel discussion, where you will have the opportunity to consider Australia’s treatment of refugees, both past and present, from the perspective of a historian, a modern-day refugee, a human rights lawyer, and a volunteer refugee advocate.

Maria Knudson was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. Losing her father at the age of 9, she experienced the horrors of the civil war, which has ravaged the country for the past 27 years. Forced to leave her family behind in Somalia, she made her way through Dubai, Malaysia and Indonesia, followed by a perilous boat journey to Australia. Detained on Christmas Island and then on Nauru, she was eventually released from Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and remains in community detention.

Alison Battisson is the founder and Director Principal of the charitable law firm, Human Rights for All (HR4A). HR4A focuses on complex cases and long-term asylum seeker detainees, and is one of the few law firms that offers pro bono assistance in places of detention. HR4A is committed to fighting the discriminatory practices of arbitrary detention in Australia and offshore, liaising with the UN, the International Criminal Court and other international organisations.

Volunteer refugee advocate and writer, Shira Sebban strives to support Vietnamese failed asylum seekers, intercepted at sea by Australia and forcibly returned to Vietnam, where several have since been incarcerated. Shira is a newly minted SJM guide, who aims to combine lessons learned from Jewish history and notably the Holocaust with her passion for social justice. A long-time board member of Emanuel School, she is also a member of SASS (Supporting Asylum Seekers Sydney), regularly visiting asylum seekers in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre.

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