Tony Abbott says Nauru is a “pleasant island” that can accommodate up to 5000 asylum seekers. During the election campaign he told Neil Mitchell the ‘tent city’ asylum seeker policy would cost about $50 million to set up. Abbott said reports of $75 a week in handouts for asylum seekers was incorrect – “we’re looking Read more
Internationally renowned Lyric Tenor Benjamin Makisi will be performing at Heythrop College on 24 August to raise funds for the work of Jesuit Relief Services-UK among refugees. Benjamin is currently based in London and his concert on 24 August will raising funds on behalf of the Day Centre for destitute asylum seekers run by the Read more
Following a two hour visit Australia’s Immigration Minister Tony Burke declared Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island detention centre ‘adequate’ and ‘ready for expansion’. But a former Salvation Army staff member who helped deliver services at the centre says that won’t be easy And she’s warned the centre will never be appropriate for the small children Read more
AUCKLAND — Twenty-three years ago the life of Vietnamese Community chaplain, Fr Andrew Nguyen, was transformed. On June 6, 1990, Fr Nguyen arrived in New Zealand to a life of peace and freedom, after a life of war, repression, imprisonment and torture. Speaking of that day in 1990, he told NZ Catholic: “I was very Read more
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea says it is surprised by and disappointed at the agreement reached by Peter O’Neill and Kevin Rudd that all asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat will be processed on Manus Island and that those deemed to be genuine refugees will be resettled in Papua Read more
It was a shipwreck of African migrants off the coast of Lampedusa, a small island in the Mediterranean, that spurred Pope Francis into action. In the past 18 months more than 500 people have died, or gone missing at sea, trying to escape Africa. The world barely noticed. Standing on Lampedusa on Monday, Francis prayed Read more
In the first pastoral trip of his pontificate, Pope Francis travelled to a refugee centre in southern Italy and issued a heartfelt appeal against the “globalisation of indifference” towards migrants. The Pope said he decided to visit Lampedusa, a small island with a population of 6000 and just 70 miles from Tunisia, after seeing newspaper Read more
As the war in Syria deepens and people continue to flee across borders, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has pledged NZ$100,000 towards supporting Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The funds will contribute to a third phase of support by the international Caritas network to refugees from Syria, regardless of race or religion, and their Lebanese hosts – Read more
Last week, Wellingtonian Murdoch Stephens launched the Doing Our Bit Campaign, aimed at convincing New Zealanders of the need to double our refugee quota from the current 750 to 1500. “Despite being a small country in the middle of the South Pacific, New Zealand prides itself on being hospitable. We are friendly to overseas visitors Read more
The world’s governments must give “absolute priority” to the fundamental human rights of refugees, a new Vatican document declares. The strongly worded document, entitled Welcoming Christ in Refugees and Forcibly Displaced Persons, was released jointly by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. It says Catholic laity have an obligation to Read more