Police pave way for refugees

By Gina Marich
A DANDENONG Police officer is leading the way to create understanding with Burmese refugees, who will make up a large portion of Australia’s next refugee intake.
Senior Constable Joey Herrech this month travelled to the town of Mae Sot in north west Thailand, on behalf of Victoria Police, to visit one of nine refugee camps on the Burmese border.
The Mae La camp is home to 50,000 people fleeing their politically volatile homeland.
The trip was part of police efforts to create multicultural understanding and familiarise officers with the cultural and ethnic issues specific to different refugee groups.
“Our issues of policing (with the Burmese) will be to make people feel comfortable about contacting police and reporting crime,” Sen Const Herrech said, describing the culture as shy and reserved.
The issue will be to break down the way Burmese people view police based on experiences in their home country, he said.
“In Burma police are quite corrupt … they have a paramilitary approach,” he said.
But the trip had made him optimistic about a trouble-free transition and few problems because of what he described as their “peace-loving, gentle community”.
In Sen Const Herrech’s opinion, the trip showed that Victoria Police was ahead of other states in terms of multicultural understanding.
“We’re absolutely at the forefront,” he said, pointing out that the Victorian force was awarded a Best Practice Award by the Refugee Council of Australia for its crosscultural training and policies.
“Policing has changed,” he said.
“We’re all about looking at the bigger picture, community policing and assisting different communities.”
Sen Const Herrech’s two-week trip also included a worldwide conference in Bangkok for cultural orientation educators who teach the Australian Cultural Orientation Program to all prospective refugees.
Sen Const Herrech, who was a presenter at the conference, said the trip had opened his eyes to the difficulties refugees faced.
“The trip gave me extreme empathy for the difficult conditions the Burmese refugees have endured … and refugees as a whole. It’s a valuable insight into a culture that we’ll use to streamline our service delivery to this community.”