Call for more Afghan refugees amid crisis
for the Australia has changed better with each successive wave of new arrivals
Catholic Bishop Vincent Long
AUSTRALIA’S major Christian church denominations are using their collective muscle to lobby the government to lift the nation’s Afghan refugee intake to 20,000.
In what has been described as an unprecedented move, the leaders from several denominations made known their feelings about the dire situation facing Afghans when US troops are expected to withdraw on Tuesday.
Hard line Islamist religious-political movement Taliban are in the early stages of governing Afghanistan.
Thousands of Afghans have already been flown out of the country, although it’s feared thousands more will be trapped and unable to flee, prompting the Christians United for Afghanistan campaign, the reverend Tim Costello said.
Sydney Anglicans, the Uniting Church in Australia, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals as well as the Australian Christian Lobby, Micah Australia and Common Grace have signed on to support the campaign, according to Mr Costello, who is executive director of Micah Australia.
“This is an unprecedented show of unity from Australian Christians on the most pressing humanitarian concern of the moment,” Mr Costello said.
“The plight of the Afghan people has touched the moral core of Christian faith.
“This crisis has already shown its power to unite us across theological, political and denominational lines.”
As the crisis unfolded, the Morrison government committed to providing 3000 refugee spaces from within its existing humanitarian program, well below what is needed to respond to this crisis, Mr Costello said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that the 3000 spaces were “a floor, not a ceiling” to those that would be offered.
The UNHCR estimates more than 550,000 Afghans have already fled their homes since the start of the year, including more than 400,000 women and children, he said.
Sydney Anglican Archbishop Kanishka Raffel said the federal government needed to be more compassionate.
“Jesus said ‘love your neighbour as yourself’, and after 20 years in Afghanistan, we should have no hesitation saying they are our neighbours,” Archbishop Raffel said.
Bishop Vincent Long, the Catholic Bishop of Parramatta, said Australia had a long tradition of generously resettling refugees and displaced persons who fled their home countries due to war, conflict and violence. “Australia has changed for the better with each successive wave of new arrivals because people like me have brought our determination and drive for a better future,” he said.
Brooke Prentis, chief executive of Common Grace and Aboriginal Christian leader, said “it takes action to love someone” and “these lands now called Australia must be known as a place of compassion”.
Other signatories to the cause included Uniting Church Australia president Reverend Sharon Hollis, National Council of Churches president Bishop Philip Huggins, Baptist World Aid acting chief executive Melissa Lipsett and Jesuit Refugee Service Australia director Tamara Domicelj.