The confirmation came as a group of more than 15 former Afghan interpreters protested outside Parliament for a second day, demanding the immigration minister speak to them about their plea to have family members granted visas.

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said he was unable to front the group, but his Labour Party colleagues had met with them. The interpreters want Faafoi to progress stalled family reunification visa applications, and make a commitment to resettle their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Read more

CSS recently published a statement thanking those who made contributions. The message said simply, the organisation doesn't have the capacity to store any additional items.

The statement read, "Thank you for your immediate and generous response. When we made our appeal for help, we had no idea of how our community would respond. We are moved and humbled by the outpouring of support and generosity from so many people. We should have known!"

The social agency only launched the appeal for housing, furniture and household packs on September 2.

CSS will ensure the donated goods will be distributed to the refugees following their arrival in Wellington.

"As the families arrive in Wellington and begin settling in we will try to update you on how your gifts were applied and the difference they have made in the lives of the Afghan people making a new life here in NZ."

Although the final number of Afghan refugees coming to Wellington is yet to be confirmed, Wellington Archdiocesean general manager, John Prendergast said "Every action, small or large, will greatly benefit the individuals and families fleeing a desperate situation and seeking safety in New Zealand".

Prendergast told CathNews the archdiocese's assistance can be seen as a humanitarian response.

While the current appeal has closed, CSS is still looking for support to find suitable housing for the refugees. "If you can help, please contact our community facilitator Paul Alsford at Refugees@wn-catholicsocialservices.org.nz", the message read.

CSS also said any financial donations would be welcome and can be made by going to the CSS website.

A mark of Francis' pontificate is his speaking and acting in favour of the disadvantaged.

And again on the last day of his recent Slovakia Francis told 60,000 people that faith involves identifying with suffering.

He encouraged Slovak Catholics to open their hearts to "a faith that becomes compassion" that "identifies with those who are hurting, suffering and forced to bear heavy crosses."

It is "a faith that does not remain abstract but becomes incarnate in fellowship with those in need. A faith that imitates God's way of doing things quietly relieves the suffering of our world and waters the soil of history with salvation," he said.

The CSS appeal is also being supported by: Red Cross, Arise Church, St Vincent de Paul and changemakers Resettlement Forum.

Sources

• Catholic Social Services
• CathNews New Zealand

The escape happened after South Vietnam had fallen to the Vietnamese communist forces in 1975, and my world descended into total chaos with an international embargo, wars against China and Cambodia, forced collectivisation and the insidious spread of what were termed ‘re-education camps' — but were really communist gulags.

My siblings and I grew up in a world of poverty, isolation, oppression and constant fear of what might happen to us or our loved ones.

Finally, my parents, who had escaped by boat themselves from North Vietnam in 1954, encouraged my siblings and me to escape.

The boat journey was risky, and there were far more people on the boat than it could carry safely.

By the third day, we'd run out of food, water and fuel and were at the mercy of the elements.

On the seventh day, we drifted near an oil rig, half alive and half dead.

Fortunately, we were rescued, and brought to a refugee camp off the coast of Malaysia, where I stayed for over a year.

In December 1981, I was accepted and brought to a country I knew nothing about: Australia.

Here, I built a new life, and worked hard to become a priest, a dream that I had held since I was 13 years old.

Growing up in war and later transiting in a refugee camp, all I wanted to do was to help people who suffered, and so in Australia I was finally able to follow that dream properly, eventually even becoming a Bishop, something I never would have imagined when I was clinging to that boat on the ocean.

Today, even though it's been decades since I fled the war, it all comes flooding back as I see footage of people clambering onto planes.

Some of the images of people dangling off the stairs to aircraft in Kabul were eerily similar to what happened in Saigon in April 1975.

My Catholic faith compels me to try to address these kinds of injustices, ones that remind me of what I and my loved ones experienced in Vietnam.

I believe in the universal and inclusive love of God, a love that seeks to embrace all people, most especially those at the periphery, who are experiencing poverty and injustice.

I also believe that people of faith, and Australians more broadly, must stand for social and moral issues, because this is the only way that we can build the world we want to see in the future.

And this is a pivotal moment for us to step up and support those in need in Afghanistan.

I hope to see the same level of bipartisan support for Afghan refugees now as there was for Vietnamese refugees then.

We must offer additional refugee resettlement places for Afghan refugees immediately, as we did in 2015 for Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

Canada has already committed to 20,000 additional places for Afghan refugees, and we could match this offer to show that we are ready to shoulder our responsibility to those in need.

We must extend the temporary visas of all Afghan citizens in Australia so that they will not be at risk of forced return to a dangerous country, and extend permanent protection to any Afghans on temporary protection visas.

Finally, we must support family reunion applications for Afghan Australians whose families are in danger.

We need to support the Afghan people.

And we need to live up to our international obligations, and also live up to our status as a prosperous society, one with a courageous past that welcomed previous waves of refugees en masse from Asia.

Australia has changed for the better with each successive wave of new arrivals because people like me have brought our determination and drive for a better future.

We need to honour this legacy by showing the Afghan people our compassion and solidarity because I believe that this is the true identity of the country I have made my home. In view of our involvement in the war in Afghanistan, we also have a moral duty to do so.

• Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv is the Bishop of the Diocese of Parramatta in Western Sydney and Chair of the Bishops Commission for Social Justice, Mission and Service within the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
• First published in Eureka Street.
• Republished with permission of Eureka Street and the Diocese of Parramatta.

The Archbishop's Afghan Refugee Appeal will raise desperately needed funds and commit Archdiocesan agencies and partners to providing pastoral, educational, health and welfare assistance to Afghan families and individuals fleeing their homeland.

Archbishop Fisher has also personally contacted Australia's Minister for Immigration, Alex Hawke, asking that the government be generous in its intake of Afghan refugees.

Thousands have fled Kabul and Afghanistan in the last two weeks following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, completing its control of the country.

Read More

"There are lots of people, including our veterans, who know these Afghans. They want us to do more. We can do much better than 3,000," Brennan told Sky News Australia.

There are particular fears for the safety of women and girls as the Taliban imposes hardline Islamic rule on Afghanistan.

Alex Hawke, the Australian Immigration Minister, defended the number, pointing out that Australia's total intake of Afghans since 2013 would be up to 14,000.

He said Australia has been welcoming Afghans every year, unlike some other countries.

In 2015, the Abbott government granted 12,000 humanitarian visas to people in Syria on top of Australia's regular humanitarian program.

However, Brennan pointed out that Australia used to have 18,750 places a year for humanitarian cases. That was reduced by 5,000 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. "So, to say that we'll just take 3,000 in the first place as a floor, not a ceiling, and that's part of the 13,000. We need to get back to a decent intake."

Brennan believes three issues need to be addressed related to the Afghanistan refugee situation.

The first issue is the evacuation of people from Afghanistan, given the collapse of the situation there. The Australian government need to "evacuate those who are Australian citizens, those who have visas and those who worked for the Australians."

Secondly, Brennan asked, what will Australia do for those who will flow across the border, particularly into Pakistan and Iran or seeking refuge elsewhere?

"As Australians, we need to do our bit, and I'm one of those Australians who think our bit sounds more like twenty thousand rather than three thousand," said Brennan.

The third issue Father Brennan raised was "what the country should do with the 5,000 Afghans on temporary protection visas. Many have been in Australia for 10 years?"

"I think we should move to give permanent residence to those 5,000 so they can start to sponsor their families. Then we can sponsor 20,000 places for those who are stranded in Pakistan or Iran."

According to Brennan, the 5,000 Afghan refugees have been living in Australia, being responsible citizens, ably employed and getting educated.

"They're the very ones we would be looking to say, well, look, we can't take all of those Afghans who are fleeing persecution under the Taliban. But sensibly, we should be taking those who already have good family connections to those here."

"I think the sense of the Australian community is that there are enough people who will say, ‘well, hang on; if they're here, they've been here over 10 years, let's give them permanent residence.'"

"What's the Australian community prepared to do given that we committed our forces to Afghanistan for 20 years," Brennan concluded.

Amnesty International Australia Refugee Advisor Dr Graham Thom slammed Australia for only taking 3,000 Afghan refugees.

"This is a huge crisis which has only just begun. 3,000 places is a start, but it's wholly insufficient when we have so many people in urgent, desperate need," Thom said.

Sources

Sky News Australia

The Daily Mail

New Zealand Herald