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Actors for Refugees was formed in Melbourne, Australia, in September 2001. Founding members Alice Garner and Kate Atkinson wanted to use the collective might of Australian actors to influence community attitudes toward refugees and asylum seekers and to encourage a humanitarian response to their plight.
There have been a number of grassroots refugee support and advocacy groups to emerge since the Tampa crisis (and some well before then) and we share many of their concerns and hopes, including an end to mandatory detention and the development of a more expedient, just, and humane system of processing claims for refugee status, the immediate release of all children and their primary carers from detention and the closure of those centres in remote regions, Temporary Protection visas to be replaced with Permanent Protection and resettlement support for all successful refugee claimants, an end to the "Pacific solution", as well as greater accountability from our government and openness to independent scrutiny.
While these groups are lobbying in political and legal arenas for the rights of refugees in our country, it is important that we define what we can offer specifically as actors, both in support of these other groups, and as a unique force in the broader campaign.
To be continued at ... Why Actors? |
