The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) is facing the terrible prospect of having to close its doors in six weeks due to funding shortages caused by cost-of-living pressures impacting on donors.
Staying open is essential, however, while the rights of thousands of people seeking asylum are denied. ASRC said that 97% of those seeking asylum here have no access to integral social support systems, including income, housing as well as educational assistance and legal aid.
The ASRC was founded in 2001, after students and TAFE teacher Kon Karapanagiotidis discovered asylum seekers were receiving very little institutional support. They began a student and community-run and funded Foodbank, which led to the centre’s founding.
ASRC has been a lifeline for people seeking asylum for 21 years.
Being independent, it can speak freely about the inhumanity of successive government’s refugee policies and it can help asylum seekers and refugees.
Over the last year, as cost-of-living pressures have impacted almost everyone, donations to the ASRC have dropped by 45% making it impossible to keep its services operating.
Thousands of asylum seekers, especially those who are denied the right to work or study, or receive any government support, will be left without a lifeline if the ASRC is closed down. Please help make sure that does not happen.
[The ASRC has launched an urgent appeal to keep its service going. You can donate here.]