Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia- CSRA

New program commencing July 2022

In December, the federal government announced two important new measures that herald a new era for community sponsorship of refugees in Australia. 

• New four-year ‘Community Refugee Integration and Support Pilot’ (CRISP): CRISP will enable Australian community groups to take primary responsibility for welcoming and settling 1,500 UNCHR-referred refugees over a four-year period, beginning in July 2022. Refugees involved in this program will be able to access Centrelink support and Medicare benefits on a par with other resettled refugees, with the role of community members likely to be focussed on providing welcome, practical support and some basic ‘on arrival’ needs like temporary housing, furniture and household goods and other material needs.  More information can be found in on the CRSA website here. 
• Current CSP program will become more affordable: From July 2022 the visa application charge associated with the current Community Support Program will be significantly reduced.  This will make it more affordable for Australians to sponsor the visa of a refugee who is already known to them (e.g. a family member or friend).  

While these programs won't expand the size of Australia's humanitarian migration quota in the short term, this remains an important goal to achieve in future years, building on these new foundations.

Thank you to the church groups and individual Australians across the country who rallied to help trail-blaze this new approach by signing up to be a part of the Group Mentorship Program for newly arrived refugees (most, but not all, being Afghan evacuees). Mentor groups are providing much needed welcome, orientation, friendship and practical support, supplementing the role of government-funded settlement services. 

Groups have hosted dozens of welcome picnics and other events in communities around Australia and provided families with donated laptops, phones, scooters, toys and household goods to help fill gaps.  

Mentor groups are helping evacuees inspect and secure suitable housing in a very challenging housing market (with some successfully negotiating significant discounts with landlords), sort out hiccups with the registration of families with Medicare and Centrelink, provide advice on employment and educational opportunities and advise on the steps that people need to take to have overseas qualifications recognised here.  

For more information about joining with the groups involved in a new era of refugee protection in Australia, contact Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA). 

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CONTACT US

Telephone: (02) 9299 2215

Address: Locked Bag Q199,

QVB NSW 1230

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NCCA-ACRT Letter to the Prime Minister

The NCCA-ACRT request commitment for Afghan refugees

Like us, you must be feeling desperate about the situation in Afghanistan.  We have heard reports from many of our Afghan people who have family in Afghanistan or worrying about the related issues they see as emerging in Pakistan

Therefore we are all praying for a generous response from Australia to the situation of the Afghan people, in-country and in Australia, at this time. 

As part of ACRT, The Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project (BASP) is writing letters as are Taskforce members separately and severally to their supporters with the asks below.

The NCCA-ACRT letter to the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison can be downloaded here -  pdf 210817 NCCA ACRT PM AFG (193 KB)

The NCCA-ACRT have also sent one to Minister Hawke and Trent Zimmerman MP for North Sydney, Dave Sharma MP for Wentworth.

We give what comfort we can to those who are so traumatised by what is happening and we extend our love and support to them. 

You can help too

Please consider writing to the Prime Minister, the Minister for Immigration, the Labor Leader (addresses below) and your own MP. 

You may include the three asks below from The Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project (BASP) 

Dear ..., 

We ask that Australia:

• Grant permanent protection or citizenship to all Afghan people seeking asylum and refugee status currently living in Australia or in immigration detention
• Declare an intake of 20000 Afghan refugees (matching the Canadian commitment announced last night)
• Assist Afghan Australians with urgent family reunion applications for relatives who are in imminent danger

Email addresses:

Prime Minister of Australia: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

The Minister for Home Affairs: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Leader of the Opposition: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Connect with us FOLLOW THE TASKFORCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA   FACEBOOK   

CONTACT US

Telephone: (02) 9299 2215

Address: Locked Bag Q199,

QVB NSW 1230

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.