Submission to Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Submission to Australian
Department of Immigration and Citizenship



Dear Mr Gammo

Thank you for the Australian Chaldean Forum’s
submission on Australia’s Humanitarian Program for 2013-14.
The recommendations made in your submission
will be considered. Details of the 2013-14 Humanitarian programs will be
announced in the context of the Federal Budget in May this year.
Thank you for your contribution.
Yours sincerely
Romany Nanayakkara
A/g Assistant
Secretary
Humanitarian Branch

Many thanks and appreciations for your invitation
to us to provide written submission and comments on Australian Humanitarian
program 2013-14
Thousands of displaced Iraqi Chaldean Christian
refugees should be relocated to Australia from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
over the next year, in an attempt to help those Australia couldn’t get out of
Syria before violence forced the government to close its visa and immigration
office in the country.
Australia should resettle ten thousand Iraqis who
fled their country for safety in the Middle East. Australia should increase SHP
and “bona fide” refugees — essentially those United Nations has certified as
requiring resettlement.
The government should announce its commitment to
bring 10,000 Iraqi Christian refugees to Australia from Syria Jordan and
Lebanon. Australia should make commitment to Turkey to help resettle refugees
and should help Turkey focus efforts on the growing number of Syrian refugees
clogging overcrowded camps.
About 12,000 Iraqi refugees first fled to Syria to
escape violence, only to be displaced a second time by the civil war in Syria.
“While it’s a very big number by international standards, it’s a small number
compared to the millions of people displaced around the world.
We frankly have to pick and choose those who are
in the most urgent need of help and I cannot think of a more obvious case of
persecution than Christians fleeing persecution in Iraq.
Sam Gammo
Australian Chaldean Democratic
Forum
Chaldean International Congress
Australian Chaldean Telkepe
Association