What will God say about our treatment of asylum seekers?
For God is marked by compassion. It distinguishes him. He revealed his name to Moses, on Mount Sinai, as: ‘“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God.’ (Exodus 34:6; italics added).
God is compassionate not only in name. For out of compassion, God embraces us in our need, through the death of his Son Jesus Christ (Luke 15:20).
Our current treatment of asylum seekers lacks compassion and denies our country’s Christian heritage.
I live and work in the Auburn Local Government Area of Sydney. We house the highest concentration of asylum seekers in Australia, some 1200 people.
I count it a great privilege to be able to befriend many of these people. I tell them of my compassionate God. But I cannot tell them of my compassionate government. I have heard innumerable stories of these people’s flight for life. Without exception they are heart wrenching.
Wahid* became a Christian in Iran. His neighbour reported his conversion to the government. Facing imprisonment or execution, he fled with his wife and daughter across the world and the seas, and came to Australia. Their four year old daughter Bibi* is receiving counselling for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Rushani*, a Tamil Sri Lankan lady, saw her sister murdered by the government militia. She fled across the seas, with her husband and daughter, and came to Australia.
Nalin*, another Tamil Sri Lankan, had his teeth knocked out by the government militia. He also fled across the seas to get here. He can’t afford prosthetic teeth, so remains locked indoors in Auburn, too embarrassed to be seen.
These are but a few brief stories amid the thousands.
They all need to be heard.
What the stories all share in common is that people faced trauma in their homelands, and then went through trauma to get here. How have we responded? Not with compassion. But with more trauma. We traumatise the traumatised. How does our country administer this trauma?
We imprison asylum seekers and their children in detention centres. We commit sustained child psychological abuse in the light of day. For the asylum seekers who have made it onshore we commit them to a different type of imprisonment.
We park them on a bridging visa, that dehumanising non-visa. The paltry financial support, coupled with the prohibition against work, results in a forced poverty. This might just be bearable if it were for a very limited time.
But our greatest assault is our inaction.
We let these people languish, failing to process their claims with any sort of efficiency or haste. We don’t tell them if they will stay, and we don’t tell them when they will have an answer. Months and then years roll by.
Men (for the majority are men) who were lawyers, builders and businessmen in their country of origin, are driven to depression and despair, their dignity painstakingly eroded. The recently legislated Temporary Protection Visas are so mixed. They allow work rights, which is humane. But they disallow family reunion, which is inhumane.
Families will be kept apart indefinitely, multiplying the trauma. It seems that we punish those who have arrived, so as to keep others away. This punitive course of action is not only inhumane.
It is also unjust, for it is not illegal to seek asylum, under either Australian or International Law.
In all, we deprive asylum seekers of that most essential ingredient for life: hope. It is a shameful blight on our nation.
The God of compassion wants people to have compassion (Colossians 3:12). And all the more, given our great wealth, for: ‘much will be required of everyone who has been given much.’ (Luke 12:48). What will God say about our treatment of asylum seekers?
* Names changed to preserve privacy
