News & Stories
Proposed inhumane changes to Migration Act cannot be allowed to pass
The passing of the Immigration Amendment Act (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 would be unnecessarily cruel and have a significantly detrimental impact on the mental health and wellbeing of vulnerable people, says the Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA).The amendment is due to be…
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Palm Sunday an appropriate day to walk with people who are powerless
Each year on Palm Sunday, small groups in major Australian cities have marched to plead the cause of people who seek protection. This year Coronavirus will prevent the marches, and rightly so. But we should take time to honour the commitment and enthusiasm of the participants, and to…
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Medevac repeal vindictiveness foreign to our sense of ourselves as a nation
By Fr Andy Hamilton SJ. This piece was first published by Jesuit Social Services on their blog. Above picture taken during CAPSA-coordinated delegation to PNG – The Bomana Immigration Detention Centre, Port Moresby, where a number of men in need of medical treatment are detained. To a casual…
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‘There has to be a better solution’ for Manus and Nauru
An open letter to our political leaders on hope and change for people seeking asylum and refugees who have been living on Manus and Nauru for the last six years by Paige Van Every. Our four children are fortunate enough to be born here in Australia and they,…
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Why We Walk for Justice for Refugees on Palm Sunday
By Fr Andy Hamilton SJAs we imagine the scene of Palm Sunday, we can’t miss the disconnection between what we see with our eyes and the high meaning it proclaims. We see a man seated precariously on a barrel-like ass, accompanied by a raggle-taggle group of bystanders waving…
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A Reflection on Australia Day 2019
by Andy Hamilton SJ Australia Day is a good time to think of our beginning and current time as a nation. It all began with the relationship between the English colonists and the Indigenous people. It continues with the relationship between Australian citizens and people who come to Australia…
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Christmas and People Seeking Protection from Persecution Go Together
by Andy Hamilton SJ Christmas and people seeking protection from persecution go together. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus, with a price on his head, went to Egypt with his parents as a refugee. He found shelter there – there were no detention centres and children were not detained. If he…
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We want a Christmas without detention
By Andrew Hamilton SJ.In Australia Christmas is all about children. We encourage them to feel special and to wonder at the world that for a day has become their present. The first Christmas was also a children’s day, when God loved the world so much as to enter…
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