Australians welcome refugees in their homes

Over only a few days, more than 1000 families from 60 Australian cities and towns volunteered to host asylum seekers awaiting a protection visa, under a government scheme to release more refugees from detention.

From next month, the Australian Homestay Network, the Red Cross and the federal government will coordinate to place asylum seekers released from detention on bridging visas in Australian households for a six-week stay.

Online campaigner GetUp! made a call-out to its members on May 3 and the Homestay network wrote to its 5000-member base asking for help.

The network's executive chairperson, David Bycroft, said the response had been overwhelming. By May 10, he said they had received about 1300 applications. He said they hoped to house about 200 asylum seekers a month under the program.

Sydney resident and refugee advocate Fabia Claridge told Green Left Weekly it made sense because “detention is so expensive and damaging, why not give that money to Australian families instead of Serco?”

Private prison operator Serco holds the contract to run all of Australia’s refugee detention centres, which last year cost the government $1.06 billion. The company posted a $59 million profit.

Families that volunteer to host a refugee would receive a weekly stipend of between $130 and $300. Asylum Seeker Resource Centre coordinator Pamela Curr said it costs up to $850 a night to keep an asylum seeker in detention: “Community processing and $215 a week is more humane and more cost effective.”

Claridge had an Iraqi refugee live in her home for about six months. She told the Australian her door was open to more. She said Liberal immigration spokesperson Scott Morrison’s claims that the homestay plan was “dangerous” and “reckless” was a “fear beat up, more war on asylum seekers”.

She told GLW: “There is the capacity for Australians to be more welcoming [to] refugees. It's a better experience for refugees rather than being shunned and shut away in detention.”

Another couple eager to share their home with refugees told the Illawarra Mercury: “They're coming from a negative environment. This way they're coming into a community and people's homes, where they can see the positive side. I think it could be beneficial to them psychologically.”

Claridge said there was potential for positive development, but: “They are usually so mentally unwell by the time they make it out of detention, you have to be patient with the fact that they have been traumatised in detention.

“Really it can be a win-win. But they need a little bit of rehabilitation — and it would be better if they get them out much sooner. They have already had traumatic experiences over years before coming here. Detention just makes them worse.”

A recent parliamentary inquiry into mandatory detention for asylum seekers, which has been Australia’s policy for 20 years, found that about 85% of asylum seekers held in detention had some form of mental illness, which grew worse the longer they were held.

Long-term detention and its obvious ill effects on asylum seekers has grown increasingly unpopular and the Homestay network brought the proposal to house refugees with Australian families to the department of immigration last year, as the government began plans to move more refugees out of detention.

Latest figures from the immigration department show more than 1000 refugees in detention have been released on bridging visas. But the government has quickly faced a shortage in “community detention” and other short-term accommodation sourced and provided by the Red Cross and other charity groups.

Victoria-based charity group the Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project said in December that allowing refugees to live in the community was a “very welcome decision”, but the UnityCare agency had to find “40 new houses and twice as much funding for our care and emergency services”.

Hotham says about 40% of asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas are homeless.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says that asylum seekers are turned away from crisis and transitional housing because of lack of funding and because few refugees have an income or an “exit strategy”.

Others must try their luck on a competitive rental market, with no rental history and often with no income.

In a paper on homelessness, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says: “Housing is one of the greatest challenges facing asylum seekers in Australia. Asylum seekers who have applied for protection can live for years in the community without stable accommodation and without access to mainstream housing services.”

The government did not allocate enough extra funding to house and provide necessary services when it began releasing refugees into the community, but shifted some funding from detention spending instead. It has even cut $13.1 million in funding over four years for resettlement services for onshore refugees, guaranteed to create a bottleneck as refugees try to start a new life.

Programs for families to host refugees in their homes are not new. Many refugees have been billeted with Australians after receiving their refugee visa.

But the federal government is treating this like an interim measure. Its ultimate goal is to reintroduce offshore processing and send refugees back to Malaysia. Immigration minister Chris Bowen repeats the government’s line that the Coalition should support its “Malaysia solution” every time a new boat of people seeking protection arrives.

The generosity and willingness to welcome refugees from so many Australian people is a positive sign for the refugee rights movement. It’s an indication that despite the demonisation of refugees by politicians and the media, there is wide community support for freedom and justice for refugees.