By CASEY NEILL
“WE found a five-months pregnant woman sleeping on a cold hard floor in Dandenong because there was no money to buy a mattress.”
Friends of Refugees spokesman Trevor Grant said they found her a mattress, but her distressing story was not an isolated one.
“We found a group of refugees living off dry biscuits for days because they cannot afford food,” he said.
“There are refugees sleeping in borrowed cars, and bedding down anywhere they can.”
Friends of Refugees is based at Springvale Uniting Church and officially launched this month.
The group plans to lobby MPs and offer assistance, but needs volunteers to supply and drive vans, make phone calls, compile lists, sort clothes, run errands and step in for anytheng else that needs to be done.
Mr Grant said storage space, like private garages or business warehouse space, was also needed.
The group includes a minister, a former lawyer, an architect, a former union organiser, a social worker and a former journalist.
“The one thing binding us all is a belief in the right for all people to be treated with humanity and dignity,” Mr Grant said.
“People who flee terror and persecution and arrive on our bountiful shores deserve a helping hand.”
He said Australia was known for giving a leg up to the less fortunate.
“But for too long successive governments have denied any of this to asylum seekers and refugees,” he said.
“Thousands are being pushed out into the community with few resources, and no right to work.
“What the authorities are creating is a poverty-trap of monumental proportions that will have lasting effects.”
Mr Grant said the situation was getting worse, charities couldn’t cope with demand, and the ongoing Federal Government policy of deterrence wasn’t working.
“They won’t stop when they’re facing terror in places like Sri Lanka,” he said.
“It’s a ridiculous situation and a policy that’s failed miserably.
“It leaves the community to pick up the pieces.”
To help Friends of Refugees, email helengoodman365@gmail.com.
