World Refugee Day last week shone a spotlight on the best and the worst of multicultural Victoria.
Around Hume and Whittlesea, communities celebrated with their councils, shared stories of struggles and successes, and honoured the enormous contribution people of refugee background make to local life.
In Bendigo, a war of words erupted over plans to build a mosque, and in Coolaroo the fate of another mosque awaits a planning tribunal decision early next month after protests from Syrian Christians during a Hume council meeting last year.
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians urged the federal government to stop the detention of asylum seekers.
College president Nicholas Talley called for mandatory detention to be replaced by “people-centred immigration policies that restore human rights and enable people of refugee background to reach their full potential”.
Refugee Council of Australia president Phil Glendenning said policies that punished asylum seekers were regrettable.
“The neglect of the human dignity of refugees and asylum seekers is not being cruel to be kind – it’s just cruel,” he said.
He said leaders had squandered opportunities to build on Australia’s proud tradition as one of the first countries to sign the Refugee Convention in 1954.
