Hedayat founded Community Construction, a social enterprise employing refugees and asylum seekers. They've completed more than 300 projects and employ over 100 people.
“I'm receiving at least five application every day from refugees. They want to work, they want to contribute, they want to support their families. They don't want to be on Centrelink, but there's no equal opportunities," Hedayat said.
This June, Muzafar Ali and the Cisarua Learning team are embarking on a 4,000 km journey from Maleny to Adelaide.
Cisarua Learning are celebrating 10 years of refugee-led education - a journey that started with just $200 and two small classrooms.
Today, Cisarua Learning has grown to support over 2,000 refugee students across seven initiatives. But their work isn't done. With your support, they can continue to expand their impact, particularly in supporting women's education in Afghanistan and refugee education in Indonesia and Thailand.
Cisarua Learning : ‘Ride for Education’ from Maleny to Adelaide
During its esfirst term in office, Labor allocated an additional $160 million to process asylum applications more quickly. While that stabilised the size of the backlog at the primary level, the total number of asylum-seekers in Australia under Labor increased from about 94,000 in May 2022 to 121,000 in February 2025. The number of asylum-seekers refused at primary stage and still living in the community increased from 68,000 in May 2022 to 93,000 in February 2025.
There is no strategy to prevent the same thing happening again in Labor’s second term. That trend means we will look increasingly like countries in North America and Europe with large numbers of unsuccessful asylum-seekers living in the shadows of society. The minister must develop a holistic asylum-seeker strategy to address that. Such a strategy will be politically difficult and costly.
Abul Rizvi - Incoming immigration minister faces immense challenges, P&I
After Ali had applied for Australian citizenship, the Department of Immigration invited him to attend an interview. It turned out to be a surprise interrogation by two ASIO officers.
Court documents show that the officers asked Ali 1020 questions in roughly two hours – a question every seven seconds. No lawyer was present during the interview and the ASIO officers never advised him to obtain legal representation.
'A travesty of justice' : ASIO's pursuit of people smugglers. By Mark Isaacs, The Saturday Paper
Will you call your new or returning local MP and urge them to read and respond to the Roadmap? You can find the digital version below.And let RACS know how you go!
There’s nothing new about debates around immigration in an Australian election campaign and it’s sensible that they happen.
There’s also nothing new about politicians weaponising debate around immigration levels, which Australia has seen in the lead-up to the federal election.
But 2025 is different in many ways.
The emphasis has shifted, reflecting broader disenchantment with both politics and policies in Australia and internationally that aids those who would blame social and economic challenges on migrants.
It’s created an environment ripe for right-wing extremists — albeit a noisy minority — to sell anti-immigration messages fuelled by misinformation, racist views, conspiracy theories and a desire to build their imagined “white Australia”.
Why extremists see gold in the migration debate. By Josh Roose, P &I
Imagine not being able to attend school, see a doctor or even open a bank account? This can be the life for stateless people, and there are more than 4 million people across the globe who experience it. Living with a disputed nationality can impact lives in all kinds of unseen ways, and has been described by some as an overlooked human rights issue. In this four-part SBS News podcast we ask what it’s like to experience statelessness, how it occurs, and what society can do about it.
Pourdarab is not alone. The Australian Institute of Family Studies found only one quarter of refugees secure employment within the first two years.
What changed Pourdarab's life was meeting Carmen Garcia, the founder of an Adelaide-based employment service, Community Corporate. It connected him with an employer.
Garcia said: "Last financial year, Community Corporate supported more than 1,600 people across Australia and 91 per cent of those were from migrant or refugee backgrounds.”
After 100 applications, Behz finally landed his dream job. Here's how. By Sandra Fulloon, SBS News
Even if practically and legislatively possible, the scale of the cuts would have dire consequences for the economy, the budget and businesses already struggling to find workers in a tight labour market.
The collapse in foreign student enrolments would also blow a hole in the profitability of major universities, which have become hugely reliant on high international fees.
The floating prison consisted of one area enclosed by shipping containers, with thin mats covering grated floors. The ship is a makeshift detention area with no furniture or bedding, no hot water and no privacy. The toilets leak sewage into the ocean.
Australia’s inhumane floating prisons. By Deham Sadler, The Saturday Paper
Nauru's President David Adeang has announced the conclusion of negotiations with Australia on long-term funding for the Regional Processing Centre.
Adeang made the announcement in parliament this month, according to the Nauru Bulletin.
To date, 93 transferees reside on Nauru, four of whom have been granted refugee status, while 89 asylum seekers are undergoing the appeals process, according to a report in the fortnightly newsletter published by the Government Information Office.
Nauru and Australia finalise long-term funding for refugee processing, RNZ
Half a century after the Vietnam War ended, South Vietnamese veterans and refugees Le Quang Vinh and Thanh Nguyen recount their harrowing experiences of war, brutal re-education camps and perilous escapes by sea.
Le and his family were among the first wave of Vietnamese refugees welcomed into Australia under then-Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser's humanitarian resettlement program in 1978.
It was a significant turning point in Australian history — coming just five years after the end of the White Australia Policy.
More immigration amnesties were promised during later election campaigns and then implemented in 1976 and 1980.
These amnesties occurred under successive Labor and Liberal federal governments, and each enjoyed enthusiastic bipartisan support.
So, how did these amnesties work – and could they happen again?
Despite it being a perennial topic during Elections this century, neither major party wants to talk about asylum seekers this time around.
After 10 years of scaremongering, Peter Dutton has given up trying to tell us we are about to be invaded by an impending armada of boat arrivals. He also knows that it was his negligence that from 2015 led to the biggest labour trafficking scam abusing the asylum system in our history. That may explain why he hasn’t brought up the issue this time.
While Labor put more resources into processing asylum claims to stabilise the number of asylum applications at the primary level and at the Administrative Review Tribunal, it knows it has not done enough to stabilise growth in the number of people who have been refused at both the primary level and at the ART (see Table 1).
Why has there been no discussion of asylum-seekers in this campaign? By Abul Rizvi, P&I
For people seeking asylum who have their initial applications refused and seek review in the Administrative Review Tribunal and in the Federal Circuit and Family Court, the process can often take more than ten years.
Whoever wins the upcoming election inherits the daunting task of addressing this issue.
Our research evaluated data on Australia’s previous attempts to increase efficiency of asylum processing. We also examined international best practice for designing fair and fast procedures, including lessons from recent successful asylum reforms in Switzerland.
“When I hear immigration getting blamed for the housing crisis, which I fundamentally know is not true – housing prices went through the roof when no immigrants were coming through in COVID – it disappoints me because I think Australia was built on the back of immigration,” he says.
“Unless you’re First Nations or a person of Aboriginal descent, we’re all immigrants in one way or another. I think Australia’s greatest asset is its immigrant community who’ve come into Australia, contributed to Australia and contributed to make it such a great country.
‘The beauty of immigration’: Inside Khawaja’s heartfelt mission for change. By Nick Wright SMH
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced a task force and fund for the exiled Afghan women's cricket team now residing in Australia. Specifics of the initiative remain unclear, but the cricket boards of Australia, England and India will provide "meaningful support" to Afghan players.
Dr Catherine Ordway, a key figure in the team's relocation to Australia, is hopeful the fund will match the sum currently given to the Afghan men's team.
The vast majority of permanent migrants who have moved to Australia since 2000 have come to the capital cities, according the 2021 census data.
The Coalition has pledged to cut permanent migration by 45,000 places per year, but Peter Dutton says parent visa numbers wouldn't be reduced.
Immigration minister Tony Burke told SBS the Coalition’s proposed cuts to permanent migration were "reckless" and the pledge to not cut parent visas would mean deeper cuts would be made to the skilled visa category.
What are the policies and positions of the political parties running for Parliament?
Election Policy Comparison on Refugee and Asylum Issues. From Refugee Council of Australia
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