Support on the ECAJ stand on asylum-seekers
The Assembly of Rabbis and Cantors (ARC) and the Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) have affirmed the policy of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) concerning the issue of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.
The organisations say that the policies and actions of the Australian Government and its agencies currently fall far short of achieving the goals called for in the ECAJ policy.
Examples listed:
Nearly 13,000 asylum seekers on bridging visas continue to wait to have their claims for refugee status assessed. Many have waited more than a year.
Even those who have been assessed as genuine refugees are only given temporary visas and thus continue to live with the threat of being sent back to the countries from which they fled;
Around 120 asylum seekers who have been transferred from offshore detention with very real and pressing medical needs continue to be held in detention in hotels, although 46 people were recently released from detention in a Melbourne hotel after more than a year in Australia under medevac laws.;
As of 31 January 2021, there were 137 people still in PNG and 123 on Nauru, who can never resettle in Australia, even if they are genuine refugees
Ina statement they commented: “The members of the Assembly of Rabbis and Cantors are inspired by the sacred text of our Torah which calls us to care for the strangers in our midst. We are distressed by the treatment meted out by the Australian government to our fellow human beings, people fleeing persecution who have accessed their rights to seek asylum under the International Convention on the Status of Refugees. We call on the Australian government to promptly implement all policy recommendations made by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.”
