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6 Refugee Advice & Casework Service <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> 15/<strong>16</strong> 7<br />
President’s Foreword<br />
a message of thanks<br />
We have been very busy in our 29th year. The Department<br />
of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) is finally<br />
processing the over 24,000 people seeking asylum who<br />
came by boat, many of whom have been in Australia since<br />
2012. In response, we have organised our workforce to<br />
provide legal assistance under a government tender to<br />
those in this group deemed “vulnerable” (roughly 20%) and<br />
advice and assistance, as far as our resources permit, to<br />
the others. In addition, we continued providing advice to<br />
persons who arrive by plane or who are detained, as well as<br />
our family reunion work, and commenced a new program to<br />
give advice on the prospects of judicial review.<br />
We remain based at the University of New South Wales<br />
(thanks to the University’s continuing commitment to our<br />
work) but we hold interviews and clinics in a number of<br />
locations such as Auburn, Parramatta, Haymarket and<br />
Newtown. In addition, we now have a number of new<br />
programs linking our work with other organisations. It<br />
is with gratitude that I acknowledge the assistance with<br />
accommodation, funding and in other ways we have<br />
received from UTS Law School, the Jesuit Refugee Service,<br />
the Scully Fund, the Asylum Seekers Centre, Auburn<br />
Council, Dooleys Lidcombe, Kah Lawyers, Red Cross,<br />
Amnesty International, House of Welcome, Service for<br />
the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma<br />
Survivors, NSW Legal Aid Commission, Immigration Advice<br />
and Rights Centre, Settlement Services International, Marist<br />
Youth Care and Life without Barriers.<br />
Details of our work are provided below but, in short, in<br />
addition to our work based at Randwick and our visits<br />
to detention centres we have a large clinical outreach<br />
program, an education and information service, a project<br />
assisting unaccompanied children, a program assisting<br />
those whose bridging visas are cancelled and a family<br />
reunion program. Last financial year we provided advice<br />
to around 2800 people and gave legal assistance to over<br />
2000 people. We also developed and provided numerous<br />
training programs and made a number of submissions to<br />
government bodies.<br />
As mentioned, the Federal Government has set up a<br />
scheme (PAIS) to fund immigration legal assistance for<br />
“vulnerable” people. RACS is one of two organisations<br />
nationwide who have won the tender to do this work. For all<br />
the other people seeking asylum that RACS assists we rely<br />
on ad hoc grants for specific projects and financial support<br />
from the public. Over this year, the Vincent Fairfax Family<br />
Foundation continued to match our fundraising with 33<br />
cents for every dollar we raised and we are very grateful for<br />
this support and for this continued show of confidence in<br />
us.<br />
The Management Committee publicly thanks our<br />
committed and diligent staff who worked so hard in<br />
very difficult circumstances. In particular, we thank<br />
our Executive Director Tanya Jackson-Vaughan for her<br />
energetic and imaginative style of management and our<br />
Principal Solicitor Katie Wrigley who worked so hard to<br />
maintain our high standards of legal service and to develop<br />
new ways in which we could help our clients. Of course, our<br />
solicitors (listed below) played a crucial role in all of this.<br />
In our work we were greatly assisted by the provision of<br />
secondees from Allens Linklaters, King & Wood Mallesons<br />
and Norton Rose Fulbright and by the generous support in<br />
other ways from Gilbert + Tobin. The pro bono assistance of<br />
Henry Davis York, Baker and McKenzie, Hicksons, Herbert<br />
Smith Freehills and Hall and Wilcox was also indispensable.<br />
We could not be so productive without the generous help of<br />
our many volunteers, legal and non-legal.<br />
We thank all of you. The demand for our services has never<br />
been greater. Again, a central problem for the coming year<br />
is to obtain the funds we need to continue to do our work.<br />
In other words, we will need the continuing support of the<br />
“Friends of RACS”.<br />
Arthur Glass<br />
President<br />
I am immensely grateful to the extraordinary team at the<br />
Refugee Advice and Casework Service for their dedication<br />
and hard work defending the human rights of people<br />
seeking asylum.<br />
The legal team, led by Katie Wrigley, has represented over<br />
1000 people this year and given over 18,000 pieces of<br />
advice to people who would otherwise not have received<br />
any assistance with their protection visa application. The<br />
Senior Solicitors, who this year have included Scott Cosgriff,<br />
Jemma Hollonds, Alison Ryan, Ben Lumsdaine and Julia<br />
Steward, have provided Katie with a solid foundation from<br />
which she led a cutting edge legal service. RACS’ reputation<br />
for quality legal casework, compassionate client support<br />
as well as the provision of expert factsheets stems from<br />
this strong leadership team. The positive feedback from the<br />
people we help as well as asylum seeker support services<br />
is a testament to the lawyers’ commitment to access to<br />
justice.<br />
Operations and fundraising staff members have provided<br />
essential support to the organisation at a time when we<br />
had to move location from the University of Sydney to the<br />
University of New South Wales, fundraise for over 50% of<br />
our funding needs and develop an increasingly wide range<br />
of partnerships to ensure future sustainability. It has been<br />
a busy year and I am truly grateful for the support of these<br />
dedicated human beings.<br />
In the past twelve months, we have developed our strategic<br />
plan for the next 3 years and crafted a manifesto to<br />
highlight the values that drive us. Thanks to Legal Aid, we<br />
have been able to establish a new judicial review project,<br />
Justice for Refugees, which will assist people with referrals<br />
to pro bono barristers and lawyers. We continue to be<br />
innovators in the provision of legal assistance to the 9000<br />
people living in New South Wales that need our help.<br />
Our relationships with pro bono firms and asylum seeker<br />
support services are stronger than ever and we have<br />
had over 500 volunteers providing essential legal and<br />
interpreting support at our Legal Help for Refugees clinic.<br />
Special mention must also go to Canterbury Girls High<br />
School who have allowed us to use their school classrooms<br />
for our Make A Statement Day sessions, facilitating the<br />
provision of essential legal support, in only two days, for<br />
over 90 people needing a statement of their protection<br />
claims.<br />
Lawyers, interpreters, students and social workers provide<br />
the foundation for our work. Without this community<br />
support, RACS would not have been able to continue to<br />
provide essential legal services to the thousands of people<br />
seeking protection who need our help.<br />
Finally, as an organisation that needs to look out for our<br />
future sustainability, we are so grateful to the hundreds of<br />
everyday Australians who have put their hands up to help<br />
us help people seeking safety. You are the difference.<br />
Tanya Jackson-Vaughan<br />
Executive Director