The Fork and Talk organised by our Refugee Support Team last Sunday raised over $3700 for the UNHCR Rohingya Emergency Appeal. Around 100 people, including many from outside our parish, heard the UNHCR Representative in Australia, Thomas Albrecht, give an informative and sometimes very moving account of the refugee situation facing UNHCR and the world.
He expressed grave concern about the stability of the hillside Rohingya camps in Bangladesh as the monsoon season approached. Mr Albrecht drew particular attention to the plight of refugees in detention on Nauru and Manus Island and the domestic and international political tensions to which they had become hostage, with almost all now experiencing mental health problems.