A recent media frenzy was created when the Immigration Minister, Mr Kevin Andrews, made the administrative policy decision to freeze the intake of Sudanese refugees. Australia has taken a substantial number of such refugees in recent times, and the pause will allow Australian authorities time to improve the settlement process. Australia is still taking a substantial number of refugees.
The anecdotal evidence regarding settlement problems with Sudanese have been widely reported. In Sudan, the family structure is weak, and children are not in the habit of going to school.
The reporting of the issue has been lampooned by ABC's Mediawatch, which gave the spin that the issue was not particular to the Sudanese community.
Now the media are making wild claims, of the type that blame Mr Andrews for what would otherwise be dismissed as mere robbery and battery.
Minister blamed for attack on African teen
ReplyDeleteBy Jeff Turnbull
SUDANESE community leaders demanded an apology from Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews for inciting racial violence today, as murdered teenager Liep Gony was laid to rest.
Samuel Kuot, president of the Sudanese Community Association of Australia, said Mr Andrews' comments that Sudanese found it hard to assimilate were discriminatory and had inflamed feelings against them.
Mr Andrews last week said African refugees were forming gangs, getting in involved in nightclub fights and drinking in public parks.
Mr Kuot blamed Mr Andrews for another attack on a teenaged Sudanese immigrant last night.
Outside the funeral of Mr Gony, 18, at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Dandenong today, Mr Kuot said Sudanese in Melbourne no longer felt safe after being singled out by Mr Andrews.
"The Sudanese community, as well as the African community, expects an apology from the minister," Mr Kuot said.
"The community is angry, many people are crying and emotional.
"We came to this country and expected it to be safe and if you bring someone you need to protect them – you can't turn against them."
Two men, aged 19 and 21, have been charged with Mr Gony's murder after the teenager was found bashed and unconscious on a median strip in Noble Park in Melbourne's southeast last month. He later died in hospital.
His funeral came one day after Ajang Gor, 17, was struck over the head with a bottle in Melton, in Melbourne's west.
Mr Gor was attacked last night by three men who then stole his wallet and mobile phone which they used to send racist comments to his brother's phone.
"We believe that was caused by Mr Andrews' comments," Mr Kuot said.
He rejected Mr Andrews' assertion that the Sudanese were having trouble fitting into the Australian community.
"The minister should come to sympathise with us, not to condemn us when anything tragic like this happens," Mr Kuot said.
"We are very friendly people, not a threat to this country.
"With the comments of the minister, we feel we are being discriminated against, being interrogated, and the people who did not want us to come to this country can now turn against us."
Mr Gor, with his head bandaged, told the Nine Network he was knocked unconscious as he tried to run from his attackers.
"I don't know who caught up with me and hit me with the bottle and that was when I collapsed," Mr Gor said.
Mr Gony's mother Martha Ojulo told mourners her family had come to Australia from war-torn Sudan hoping to find a safe haven.
She said her son regarded himself as an Australian, not Sudanese.
As emotions overflowed in wailing and tears, three young women were taken to hospital by ambulances after being overcome with grief during the service.
Many of Mr Gony's former schoolmates waited solemnly outside the church, many leaning against the garden walls of neighbouring houses.
They greeted each new arrival with a quiet handshake and then waited quietly for the funeral to end.
Had they ventured inside they would have heard Mr Gony's former principal at Nunawading Christian College, Jacques Calais, describe him as a good boy who tried his very best.
"I saw a tall athletic man and I was eager for him to be part of the school," Mr Calais said.
His basketball coach Pat Doherty said Mr Gony was loyal, reliable and someone his teammates could depend upon.
"He was ambitious and his dream was to play in a professional league, and he had the ability to do that," Mr Doherty said.
Mr Andrews said later he understood the grief but there was no apology forthcoming.
"I understand what is being said today, I understand the grief that is being felt..." he said.
Have the uglies slipped their leash?
ReplyDeleteBy Andrew Bolt
This is ugly, and damning if the charge is true:
A YOUNG Sudanese youth was in hospital last night following an apparently racially-based attack in Melton.
The attack, which left the teenager unconscious, has been blamed on remarks last week by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.