Highlights:
- Australian law stipulates that arriving by boat without a valid visa and asking for protection is not a crime.
- At the end of 2023 there were almost 32 million refugees worldwide, the highest number ever recorded.
- The largest group of displaced people in Latin America today includes people from Venezuela.
Synopsis
There are thousands of asylum seekers living among the Australian community. Some of these people arrived by plane and then requested asylum, while others arrived by boat.The way they arrive affects their destination as it determines whether they are detained, or if they have visas with conditions that allow them to live among the community.
According to the Australian Refugee Council, there are fewer statistics on people arriving by plane and more figures on those arriving by boat and without visas. This situation has often generated narratives that divide the community, distancing them from the harsh reality faced by people who come to Australia seeking refuge.
In the last decade, the number of people displaced from their places of residence has almost tripled; from 41 million to more than 117 million, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).Australian laws stipulate that arriving by boat without a valid visa and requesting protection is not a crime, in fact, under its protection program, Australia offers 20,000 places for people seeking asylum from persecution, annually, but the gap between demand and The availability of places around the world is increasing.At the end of 2023 there were almost 32 million refugees worldwide, the highest number ever recorded, and three-quarters of them came from just five countries: Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, South Sudan and Venezuela.Verónica Restrepo, is an employment coordinator at Asylum Seeker Center in Sydney, a non-profit organization that connects asylum seekers with support organizations and services for emergency accommodation, financial aid, healthcare, employment assistance, education, food, material aid and recreational activities.
In conversation with SBS Spanish, Verónica Restrepo affirms that to create a better society it is important to “contribute and support these people” in the face of the housing crisis and the unprecedented high cost of living that affects all of Australia.
