Christians fleeing persecution will be freed onto Sydney streets as a result of the Federal Government's decision to overturn the current indefinite mandatory detention policy.

Immigration minister Chris Evans announced on Tuesday that mandatory detention will now apply only to people who pose a risk to society or repeatedly breach visa conditions, as well as boat arrivals undergoing health, identity and security checks.

Sydney Anglican John Fry " who received a Medal of the Order of Australia in June for his service to prisoners and detainees " says over 50 per cent of the hundreds of detainees to be released progressively from Villawood Detention Centre in the aftermath of Tuesday’s announcement are likely to be Christians fleeing persecution in China.

"I would say quite a sizeable proportion of those released would have embraced Christianity or would be seekers," he says.

Mr Fry visited Villawood Detention Centre yesterday afternoon to run his usual weekly Next Step program, teaching detainees about different aspects of life in Australia, and said the more-than 40 detainees in the class were "all upbeat" about the reforms.

"At my suggestion, they were keen and pleased to write a letter to the new minister thanking him for this policy reform," he says, adding that the detainees will sign a letter drafted by him.

As attention focuses on how the released detainees could be assisted, Mr Fry suggests now is an opportune time for Sydney’s Chinese churches to embrace them as he believes up to 80 per cent of all detainees to be released are Chinese.

“The local church is a very important part of their nurturing and in this case it would seem logical, particularly for the many who do not have any or much English, that the Chinese congregations would be strategic, and there are a number of them around, including in the Anglican Church,” Mr Fry says.

Detainee struggle just beginning

Despite the excitement stemming from the policy move, detainees now face a new challenge of having to make their way in a foreign city, a daunting prospect according to former Villawood detainee and current Moore College student Amir Mesrinejad.

"There has always been support systems available within the different facilities that the government and other organisations provide, but sometimes for a new arrival who does not understand English very well, who has no one to assist them, it's very hard to use these facilities," he says.

Iranian-born Mr Mesrinejad, who spent five years in Villawood, says he was "really overwhelmed" when he first heard the news of the policy change.

"I'm really happy that the new Labor government is acknowledging that this mandatory detention does nothing but harm," he says.

"There is no doubt there should be a screening process in place, but it should never take an individual five years to be screened."

Neighbours and Friends, an organisation Mr Mesrinejad runs with Mr Fry, will be seeking to help those newly released from Villawood to find accommodation and employment, and to "find their place in society", he says.

The organisation has been running for two years, providing household items for more than 60 migrant families in the past 12 months.

The expected flood of released detainees will stretch Neighbours and Friends " "we are always under a strain because this is still a new ministry" " but Mr Mesrinejad asserts that "we would be very happy to provide those services".

After two years in operation, Neighbours and Friends is now starting to seek the support of organisations such as Anglicare and Mission Australia, as it aims to provide services that suit the individual needs of families with different ethnic backgrounds, Mr Mesrinejad says.

To date, Sydney Anglicans from St Paul’s Carlingford and some other churches have been helping Neighbours and Friends by acting as guarantors for newly released detainees as they seek to find rental properties in which to live.

Other services include ESL classes through local churches and help with translation and immigration paperwork.

New services Mr Mesrinejad hopes to introduce include two-month temporary accommodation for those newly released, and monthly hampers specially made to suit individual families and their ethnic backgrounds.

Neighbours and Friends has also set up a cleaning and gardening company, which employs new migrants and newly released detainees.

"Many of those who are released from immigration detention centres do not have good English abilities, therefore they find it hard to find suitable jobs for themselves, or in the workforce sometimes they are exploited by companies underpaying them" so this is the most important part of our assistance," he says.

Call for help continues

Mr Mesrinejad is particularly keen to find Christian professionals in the areas of counselling, medicine or dentistry, who are willing to provide services at a reduced rate or on a pro-bono basis.

"Everyone who has spent more than one year in Villawood, including myself and my wife, when they are released, they have serious dental problems," he says. "I don't know why, but it is such a serious matter that sometimes individuals give up because they cannot afford to pay the cost of dental care."

While Mr Mesrinejad has not yet openly asked for assistance, he admits that prayer and financial assistance would be "very helpful for our programs".

"For the last two years, we have carried this ministry on our own without any support and we are very limited as to how far we can go," he says.

"If we have the right kind of assistance, we can give services to thousands of people because we have the system in place and we can expand that system."

Both Mr Mesrinejad and Mr Fry have said they would rather run Neighbours and Friends without government funding, so as to maintain the distinctively Christian and gospel-centred nature of the organisation.

Indeed many of those newly released into Australian society are being introduced to church, as a way of having a "continued social gathering with these individuals to be the family they don't have in Australia", Mr Mesrinejad adds.

A church service with 50 members of Muslim-background believers is currently meeting at St Paul's, Carlingford.

"Our experience with the very limited people that we have assisted has been that they become self-sufficient in a very short period of time, but they will continue to come to the church, they will become faithful servants of the Lord, that's where we are really thankful to the Lord for providing these encouragements to them,” he says.

Any readers interested in contributing to Neighbours and Friends can contact the organisation through sydneyanglicans.net. Email newsroom@sydneyanglicans.net