No excuse for refugee boy's death.

An appalling & unforgivable situation. This federal government & it's obsession with out-sourcing such vital services to private contractors, no matter how urgent the requirements of the recipients are ..... !

That is a terrible tragedy......

Mebbe time, though, to find out more about what the circumstances were, than to start condemning people?

Damn contract caseworkers are dangerous. They should be banned!

All the comments I've heard today, Deb, have been to do with these services being run on a shoe string.

Critics take aim at refugee service centreEmail By Greg Ray
December 29, 2005/SMH

AS ONE of the contractors recently given the job of resettling refugees, the Australian Centre for Languages has borne heavy criticism.

The centre, which previously specialised mainly in teaching English to migrants and refugees, was recently bought for $55 million by a West Australian company, IBT Education.

In a press release announcing the acquisition, IBT stated that the centre's English teaching contracts with the Government helped it win two new five-year contracts to supply services for the Commonwealth's Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy program in two Sydney regions, including the Hunter.

Some involved in the old system - where non-profit organisations, charities and volunteers did the job - have had difficulty accepting that money should be made from refugee services. This has especially been the case in the Hunter, where critics have seized on ACL's obvious teething troubles as proof that the corporate model will not work.

The Australian Community Relations Commission's volunteer of the year, Robyn Graham, of New Lambton, believes ACL will face an uphill battle against the cultural and social problems many African refugees face.

Ms Graham received her award for four years of unpaid work helping African refugees adjust to life in this country. "Nobody could afford to pay for the services these people need," she said. "The care they require is intensive and round-the-clock. I don't think the Government fully understands what is involved."

Margaret Piper, the director of the Refugee Council of Australia, said ACL should be given time to sort out its problems. "They have to cope with a very big case load of complex clients and efforts are being made to help them fill the gaps," she said.

"Some former service providers are unhappy and there are many shades of grey and conflicting agendas at work.

"The thing to recognise is that these are teething problems in a world-leading system. Australia accepts 13,000 refugees a year, and these people depend on this system working well."

But the national co-ordinator of Mercy Refugee Services, Lorraine Phelan, said ACL had already had six months to get on top of its responsibilities. "That should be long enough," she said. "I know with ACL at the moment they are not up to the mark … Families are falling through the gaps. People are not supposed to be left stranded."

Sister Phelan said African refugees were harder to deal with than the Middle Europeans many agencies were used to. "They are rural, they are not educated and they have big difficulties with every aspect of adjustment. Their problems are multi-layered and it is obvious that there just aren't enough services for them." .. <cont>

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/critics-aim-at-refugee-service-centre/2005/12/28/1135732641929.html

I just can't see that critical refugee services should be run by a profit-driven organisation.

Yeah, I guess I am concerned re the caseworker being blamed in the way it seems s/he is being, with little info.


If the mistake wa sdue to shoe string stuff, I will be happy to join in condemnation of the governemnt, and my experience in human service would certainly suggest that ALL such services...especially outsourced ones...are run so that the organisation can underbid all others.

The effect this has on services and service providers and clients is terrible.


I just hate to see scape goating happening, and the worker will be unable to defend themselves publicly.

This will be a witch hunt.


The African refugees we are getting in are amongst the most awfully traumatised people I have ever seen..........this is such a sad thing.


I only hope that the political fallout may be enough to get the government funding better...but, again, I more suspect some poor bastid down low will take the fall.

I don't like the thought of any individual caseworker being scape-goated, either, Deb. But the mind boggles at the thought of a refugee father, just 24 hours in Oz, being told to ring 000 if his seriously ill child gets any worse. Something's very wrong. Clearly the child should have been under proper medical supervision in a hospital.