A SMALL group of dedicated volunteers leave the doors open to Swan Hill’s Uniting Church every week for refugees and migrants to drop by.
They can come for help with visa applications and paperwork, to learn English, or to catch up with close friends over a meal.
For Malaysian refugee Jamie*, coming to the weekly gathering has given much relief while waiting for a visa application to be approved.
“They’ve helped me with everything here, from visa applications, work rights, clothes and food,” she said.
“They’re like my family.”
Jamie came to Australia over a decade ago due to feeling unsafe in Malaysia, but after her temporary protection visa ended years ago, she hasn’t been able to work.
She said being unable to work was affecting her mental health.
“I want to do (things) myself, support myself, and have some relief for myself,” she said.
Jamie said she also had hopes of being able to study in a field where she could help other people.
“I (want to) help people and whoever has supported me, I will give back support,” she said.
However, support in the community is under pressure as more people arrive and add to the “gigantic melting pot” of refugees, migrants and seasonal workers in Swan Hill amid a shortage of housing and cost-of-living pressures.
David Hackett and the handful of ageing volunteers who make up the Swan Hill Community Issues Group said they were exhausting their capacity to help.
“Our ideal situation is to have enough funding to get support staff from services like SMECC or Mallee Family Care. I think that’s the bare minimum,” he said.
“We need at least two case workers so that when one of them can’t work, the pressure isn’t put on us.”
Mr Hackett has been assisting migrants and refugees in the community since 2000.
In the spare rooms behind the Uniting Church, he has records of the many refugees who have dropped by in order get help with applying for a permanent visa.
He said many refugees arriving in Swan Hill in recent years could not make the move to Melbourne anymore due to cost-of-living pressures.
SHCIG has also called for humanitarian visas to be granted to the families of refugees who are still in danger in Afghanistan.
“I remember being with one man who was on the phone with his wife in Afghanistan and you can hear rifle shots in the background,” he said. Reverend Mark Boyce, who has been volunteering with SHCIG for the past three years, said there were additional financial obstacles for Afghan men when bringing their families here after they get permanent visas.
“Going through the visa process to bring (their families) here costs a huge amount of money,” he said. “And then they’ve also got to fly them here and find housing, so there’s this compound of financial issues and economic stuff they need to deal with.”
Volunteer John Waterson said he and other volunteers had to be on call 24 hours to provide urgent help to vulnerable migrants and non-English speakers.
“I remember one time we got a phone call from a family who were currently in Dubai and ready to board and come to Australia with their little children,” he said. “But there was one form that hadn’t been completed.
“They contacted David to send a copy back of the documents filled and the matter was resolved within an hour.”
“But it was an hour in the middle of the night … If it wasn’t resolved, that family would have been turned away from applying for a visa when they have already bought tickets at an enormous cost.”
Rev Boyce said pressures for both refugees and volunteers would ease if Swan Hill had access to funding and government services by being recognised as an official settlement location in the same way as Mildura and Shepparton.
“Without being classified as such, it makes it really difficult to provide support and care for people.”
Last year Swan Hill Rural City Council also called for the municipality to be established as an official settlement location and voted to write to federal ministers, MPs and senators, and service providers such as SMECC and Mallee Family Care for support.
While SHCIG continues its support to newly arrived refugees and vulnerable migrants in the community, Rev Boyce said the group would appreciate a storage shed for donations of items from locals.
“We often get given furniture, but we have no place to store any of that,” he said.
“People are really generous but we just need a dry and secure place to store those things.”
* Not her real name.
