Annual Report 2014-15

Outreach
In order to provide effective legal advice and assistance
to asylum seekers and refugees in NSW, RACS has
partnered with a number of other organisations to form
outreach programs for asylum seekers in both Auburn
and Parramatta.
Auburn Asylum Seeker and Refugee Legal Outreach
With the assistance of Auburn Council and Dooleys
Lidcombe, we established an outreach service in Auburn,
a suburb with the highest asylum seeker population in
Sydney. The service is based at the Auburn Centre for
Community and provides advice to drop-in clients as well
as people with appointments.
Our outreach is part of an asylum seeker hub at the
Centre, with House of Welcome and Settlement Services
International providing alternating fortnightly meals and
a Refugee Health Nurse available for much need medical
services. This is a truly exciting initiative, providing a
service in the suburb where many people who seek
asylum live, saving them money and helping them to
avoid the challenging journey into the city.
In 50 days,
1196 individuals
from 29
nationalities
were assisted
Thanks to Dooleys’ continuing financial support , in
2015/16 we will now be able to provide this service 2 full
days a week.
As a local government area, Auburn is home to the
highest number of asylum seekers in NSW, around 1000
people are waiting to have their protection claims heard.
The project has been an outstanding success. Due to
the changing needs of asylum seekers in the first half
of 2015 the demand for services and assistance at
the outreach services has increased dramatically. The
outreach service has been extremely successful in terms
of its ability to provide service to such a large number of
clients in such a short space of time. It is now one of the
primary gateways for asylum seekers and refugees to
access RACS legal services.
Main topics of advice:
• Bridging visa (e.g. conditions, reporting, expiry,
cancellation, Code of Behaviour)
• Protection visa applications (e.g. application
process, legal tests, explaining letters and
decisions, refusal, appeals)
• Ministerial intervention
• Family reunion (e.g. partner visa, child visa,
humanitarian visa)
• Completing forms (e.g. visa application
forms, FOI requests for access to documents,
applications for AFP certificates)
• Explaining and facilitating correspondence with
Department of Immigration
• Referrals for assistance through other RACS
services, other legal services and welfare
services.
Refugee Advice and Casework Service | 15