Vinnies at Palm Sunday Rally for Refugees

‘Photo: Robin Osborne – St Vincent de Paul Society’.

In September last year Catholics marked Migrant and Refugee Sunday by praying for Afghanistan[1] and many joined the Christians United for Afghanistan campaign in calling for more action to help Afghans.[2] In last week’s budget, after significant lobbying, the Australian Government responded to a key call of that campaign by agreeing to accept an additional 16,500 Afghan refugees.

Vinnies welcomes this decision, but we also know there are many other urgent concerns about Australia’s treatment of refugees that need to be addressed. So, Vinnies invites Christians and people of good will in the Canberra region to join us at the annual Palm Sunday Rally seeking justice for refugees.

The rally will address key concerns that Vinnies also has with Australia’s treatment of refugees including:

• the 200 people still held in PNG and Nauru after nearly nine years.
• nearly 20,000 refugees in Australia still on temporary visa after a decade, who can’t bring their families here.
• thousands seeking asylum but enduring the fast-track refugee assessment process, condemned as unfair by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
• hundreds in Australian detention, many brought here for medical treatment.

These injustices must end. So we Christians and all people of good will must continue to call publicly for a fairer and more compassionate approach.

The rally will be held in Garema Place at 1pm on Sunday 10 April. Vinnies members are meeting beforehand at 12.30pm next to the carousel in Petrie Plaza.

[1] https://www.catholicvoice.org.au/migrant-and-refugee-sunday-a-prayer-for-afghanistan/

[2] https://www.unitedforafghanistan.com/