Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (CRSI) 

2020 was a year like no other – a hard one for so many Australians, and even more so for friends, family and refugee communities living overseas.

Like many others, the Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (CRSI) is looking forward to happier times in the year ahead, and there is cause for their cautious optimism.  They have the full attention of federal policy makers, who are listening to their recommendations as they review Australia’s current refugee settlement policies and they are also putting the concept of refugee sponsorship into practice in Australia through a pilot program that they launched in 2020.

In the midst of the pandemic, through the ‘Group Mentorship Program’ CRSI led a collaborative effort that recruited, trained and matched groups of inspiring Australian volunteers across the country with newly arrived refugee families.  These refugee families are now receiving a wide range of additional practical local support and social connection from the mentor groups to help them find their feet in their new homes, helping to prove that community sponsorship of refugees can work well in Australia.

Please consider taking a moment to register your interest in being involved in refugee sponsorship in the future if you’ve not done so already.  There are two options: 

• For individuals - register an Expression of Interest in supporting refugee newcomers; and/or
• For community groups, organisations or companies - endorse the CRSI ‘Civil Society Pledge’

CRSI will contact registered individuals and organisations to discuss how to become more involved as soon as new opportunities to sponsor refugees to Australia become available.

Refugees released from Melbourne hotel detention

Detainees being held in a Melbourne hotel to be released into the community by the end of the week, after more than 20 were granted bridging visas on Wednesday.

In the Media:

THE GUARDIAN Wed 20 Jan 2021 13.17 AEDT: More than 20 refugees to be released from Melbourne hotel detention, advocates say 

Refugee advocates expect nearly all detainees being held in a Melbourne hotel to be released into the community by the end of the week, after more than 20 were granted bridging visas on Wednesday.

The ABC Wednesday at 5:31pm, updated Wednesday at 8:41pm: Medevac detainees freed from Melbourne hotel after years in immigration detention

At least 45 refugees and asylum seekers have been freed from immigration detention in Melbourne, where some have spent more than a year detained in inner-city hotels, advocacy groups say.