VLAF Family Reunion Report

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The steps to family reunion

Providing legal help to reunite young refugees with their families

The Victorian Legal Assistance Forum (VLAF) launched its 'The steps to family reunion' report on Monday 2 May highlighting its project supporting young refugees who need legal help to bring their families to Australia.

The report recommends young refugees should be given:

A cross section of people from the community sector came to hear Julian Burnside AO, QC, a long time refugee advocate, share his thoughts on refugee policy.

Mr Burnside praised the project team, who spent the past 14 months helping as many children as they could with very few resources. He congratulated those who produced the report and said that despite the overwhelming evidence of what needs to be done, the report demonstrated the difficulty in getting government support.

Mr Burnside said it was interesting and depressing that the current government remains unconverted by the plight of refugees. He said their biggest hope for a successful future after enduring trauma and for many of them, the horror of war and losing loved ones, is if they are reunited with family as soon as possible.

The group heard earlier from Helen Yandell, project co-ordinator and director of Springvale Monash Legal Service, that out of almost 80 applications submitted on behalf of unaccompanied refugee minors to bring their families to Australia, only four had been approved. Several had been denied and there were many with still no outcome.

Mr Burnside reflected on this figure and said that the 1,040 children in detention today was not a very large number, and releasing them could be a fairly simple process. However political will is needed to right this situation.

He ended by saying that if there is to be any light at the end of the tunnel, there need to be people who will continue to fight for refugee children.

The VLAF promotes collaboration and co-ordination in the delivery of legal services for socially and economically disadvantaged people in Victoria. www.vlaf.org.au

The VLAF member organisations are:

The Unaccompanied Humanitarian Minors project brought together legal and non-legal organisations to work on systemic and service delivery issues for marginalised young people in the community.