Annual Report 2015/16

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