Justice Centre Hong Kong Case Study

“My hope finished now. I don’t have any hope. I feel I will die in detention.”
Unaccompanied 17 year old, Phosphate Hill Detention Centre, Christmas Island, 4 March 2014. 
Few social justice issues in Australia have attracted as much attention and controversy in recent times as the issue of asylum seekers. An asylum-seeker ‘is an individual who has sought international protection and whose claim for refugee status has not yet been determined’. In contrast, a refugee is an individual whose protection has been deemed necessary by the UNHCR or a State who is a signatory to the Refugee Convention. 
The issues surrounding asylum seeker has divide opinions and evoke strong emotional responses across the community. We are aware that asylum seekers are often vulnerable people, desperately fleeing civil unrest, warfare and persecution from across the world. We know that Australia is a destination of choice for many people seeking to embark on a new life in safety. And we know that there are people who will exploit the vulnerability of asylum seekers by offering them unsafe passage by sea to our shores. 
There were 584 children detained in immigration detention centres on mainland Australia and 305 children on Christmas Island. A further 179 children were detained on Nauru as at 31 March 2014.

Intro: Refugees face a far worse life than most people can imagine, and there is no easy way out for them. They first must get out of whatever dangerous place they are in, then travel long distances with almost no resources, and even if they do make it safely to the USA there is a chance they will be sent back or even put in jail. The refugee experience is defined by risks and belonging.

"The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada is an independent tribunal established by the Parliament of Canada. Our mission, on behalf of Canadians, is to resolve immigration and refugee cases efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law."

Part of my intervention plan will be devoted specifically to fostering resilience in these refugee children. To do so, integrated into their school days, classes will be held to teach the children appropriate conflict resolution strategies. At this point, the

The refugee crisis has been a contentious issue for the past decade as the amount of people seeking refuge in foreign countries is rising exponentially, with many countries turning to off shore detention as a way to deal with this issue (Coffey, Kaplan, Sampson & Tucci, 2010; Crock, Saul & Dastyari; Ljungholm, 2014). As a result of this influx the demand for human rights lawyers has increased, because the indefinite nature of the detention it is seen to be a breach of human rights (Saul, 2012; Evenhuis, 2013; Ljungholm, 2014). It is evident from the literature that long term indefinite detention of children and young adults has a significant adverse effect on their mental health, both long and short term. The two major themes that this literature

Refugees and immigrants have a specific set of needs that differ from other families. Oftentimes they suffer from a lack of resources and do not fully understand the culture that they live in. I would like to work with this population because I have experience in helping refugee/immigrant families succeed in the United States, while helping them to retain their own culture and identity. Though I have some experience working with this population, I would like to learn more about the depth of their needs and the ways that social work as a profession is seeking to fulfill that need.

The STOP funding has enabled us to create a stronger coordinated community response services with legal service providers that did not exist before for immigrant/refugee communities. As a result we service more victims in a coordinated community response manner where all agencies jointly provide services for the refugee and immigrant victims and

Goal: To improve the lives of refugees, asylees, parolees, and survivors of trafficking by helping them to acquire the cross-cultural information, skills, and social support network needed to gain stability in society and supporting them as they achieve educational and economic goals.

According to SIM, various social determinants of health can dictate the presentation and severity of the patient’s illness. The main challenge in delivering effective care of refugee mental health is the complexity and the multi-factorial nature of their suffering. A refugee is identified as someone who was forced to flee his or her country due to traumatic factors such as war, persecution, violence and racism (Moussalli M., 1992). The exposure to these factors instills an overwhelming feeling of fear, submissiveness and vulnerability. As a result, refugees can be at a higher risk of developing debilitating psychological conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety (McKenzie et al., 2010). On the other hand,

Refugees are people that leave their old lives behind to seek asylum in nearby countries because of the terror going on in their own homeland. Ha’s family had to flee Southern Vietnam because the war was drawing near Saigon. Both real-life refugees and Ha had to flee their respective countries and adapt to a whole new place before continuing on with their lives. Refugee children have a hard time becoming accepted by their peers before their community finally figures them out and start to receive them, just like Ha in Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again.

The prominence in relation to Asylum Seekers and Refugees has become a contemporary issue within Australian society and has amounted vast controversy in the media. A Refugee can be defined as a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster as found in the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees, in which Australia is a signatory to. Every refugee has or will be an asylum seeker. An Asylum Seeker is a person who has left their home country as a political refugee seeking asylum in another but has not had their claim assessed. Asylum seekers have experienced serious breaches of their rights, religious freedom and justice to reach safety. If asylum seekers are found to be

One Australian Catholic organisation that works with refugees and asylum seekers is Catholic Care. This particular organisation helps refugees and asylum seekers in several ways such as the asylum seeker support program and the refugee settlement program. The asylum seeker support program offers hope to all the asylum seekers, whether there in a family or by themselves. Upon receiving hope the asylums can do anything they want, because “you can achieve anything you set your mind to”. They also help move asylum seekers from immigration detention centres to community detention centres. Community detention centres have a more constructive and progressive outcome to help asylums reach their potential. Furthermore the refugee settlement program

the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty guidelines issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, including the Revised Guidelines on Applicable Criteria and Standards Relating to the Detention of Asylum

The maltreatment of children occurs at extraordinarily increasing proportions and is becoming a significant health risk to the children it is happening to. One of the major public health concerns should be identifying the risk factors associated with the maltreatment of these children and the just how much resistance these children really have against this abuse. Regardless of how much elasticity the general public in a whole may think these children have against maltreatment, they are still at a major risk of having diminished or compromised psychological and physical health later in life as an adult and are also are at extreme risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Children who were not subject to maltreatment are still

A refugee is defined as an individual who has been forced to leave their country due to political or religious reasons, or due to threat of war or violence. There were 19.5 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2014, 14.4 million under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 2.9 million more than in 2013. The other 5.1 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). With the displacement of so many people, it is difficult to find countries willing to accept all the refugees. There are over 125 different countries that currently host refugees, and with this commitment comes the responsibility of ensuring these refugees have access to