Interview with Ahmad Hakim, Founder and Co-Director of Refugee Voices

Ahmad Hakim is the founder and co-director of Refugee Voices, a new refugee-led community organisation in Australia. It is committed to ensuring that people from refugee backgrounds and with lived experience of claiming asylum in Australia have their voices foregrounded in campaigns, mobilisations and public policy debates. Our co-editor, Mark Justin Rainey, speaks to Ahmad on behalf of Refugee Research Online. The interview was conducted over email.

Hi Ahmad. It’s good to be in touch again, this time on behalf of Refugee Research Online and over the great distance between Galway, Ireland and Melbourne, Australia. I want to ask about the new organisation Refugee Voices. You’re the founder and co-director. What are the aims and purposes of Refugee Voices?

Firstly, I’d like to thank you for your interest in getting to know us and knowing our work and vision. It’s greatly appreciated. The aim of Refugee Voices is to train and support people with lived experience of seeking asylum to actively participate in decisions that affect them and their communities. It is our vision for refugee voices to be respected and amplified in the media and public policy debates and to be actively welcomed and supported in the broader community. We’ll work to ensure all campaigns about the rights of refugees are led by people with lived experience of seeking asylum.

There are many refugee organisations that are involved in advocacy, support and campaigning. Refugee Voices, as the name says, centres the voices of refugees. How important is it to have an organisation in Australia that is founded and organised by people from refugee backgrounds and who have direct experience of the country’s asylum system? What does it add to refugee advocacy work in Australia?

To begin with, I’d like to highlight the problems of why we as an organisation led by refugees are doing this:

• The Australian Government and its policies promote systemic racism and fail to recognise the inherent worth and human rights of people seeking asylum.
• Media fear-mongering and corporate profiteering also actively undermine the values of fair and thriving multicultural communities.
• Together, these actions perpetuate the punishment of refugees and further entrench them as second-class citizens.

There are more than 1,300 people are seeking asylum in Australia – each at risk of having their basic human rights, as well as their dignity, torn away on a daily basis, through aggressive immigration enforcement and the criminalisation of people seeking refuge. Organisations that seek to fight on behalf of people seeking asylum are providing some solutions, but it’s not enough.The voices of people with lived experience need to be heard. We need to be heard in the policies that affect us, the campaigns about us, and the staff meetings that involve our stories – because we are the experts and know the policies our community needs.

What do you see as the main issues and concerns facing refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia?

Right now, with the outbreak of COVID-19, people seeking asylum need help more than ever. I understand what it is like to live in uncertain times and how traumatising it can be, as it brings to the surface past traumas experienced. For vulnerable people and their families, the pandemic is the breaking point. With no income and in many cases, limited access to government safety nets, such as Centrelink or Medicare, the lives and livelihoods of refugees are under threat once more. Refugee Voices exists to centre people with lived experience in policy debates and the media narrative in order to protect the human rights and dignity of refugees during the pandemic and beyond. My vision is for refugee voices to be respected and amplified and for all Australians to be welcoming and supportive of people seeking asylum. I would like to see people with lived experience of seeking asylum leading all campaigns concerning refugee rights.

We first met in 2019 at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray, Melbourne while I was volunteering in the campaigns and organising team. Your work with the ASRC involves, among many things, coordinating the Community Advocacy and Power Program which trains people with lived experience of seeking asylum with leadership skills to become advocates for the refugee community. What are the connections, if any, between Refugee Voices and this work? More broadly, will Refugee Voices be collaborating with other refugee support organisations in Australia?

I am really enjoying the work with Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. The Community Advocacy and Power Program that I am running for the ASRC is a powerful one and it is aimed to equip people with lived experience of seeking asylum with the skills they need to be spokespeople on their issues and change the narratives around them. This is a great initiative by the ASRC.

Regarding collaboration, in any social movement there needs to be different types of organisations. This is a good thing. Refugee Voices will always compliment the work and role of the ASRC, adding capacity and reach. Also, we are looking to work more on the area of our interest and develop a collaborative pathway toward securing fairer policy.

From your website, one of the first campaigns for Refugee Voices will be to secure a permanent home for the ‘legacy caseload’ in Australia. This refers to the approximately 30,000 asylum seekers who arrived by boat between 2012 and 2014. They are barred from applying for permanent residency and instead must continually apply for temporary visas of three or five years. It seems to create a situation of perpetual uncertainty. Can you tell us more about this issue and the Refugee Voices initiative?

The ‘legacy caseload’ refers to approximately 30,000 asylum seekers living in Australia who arrived by boat between 2012 and 2014. Successive Labor and Coalition governments have implemented legislation prohibiting them from applying for permanent residency in Australia. Instead, they are limited to applying for a three-year Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) or a five-year Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV), which they have to periodically re-apply to have renewed.

Permanent migration to Australia has declined from an estimated 270,000 to 34,000 due to COVID-19. People in the legacy caseload who have been in Australia for five years can take these available visas. In the midst of this pandemic, many of these asylum seekers are working at the forefront of essential services like agriculture, aged care, disability care and food processing. Yet, they are ineligible for any government support and face the added uncertainty of having to reapply for protection every few years. We believe Australia can’t afford to lose these hard-working people who do the tough jobs. We need these people to help rebuild our economy, as many of them provide a stable backbone in our rural agricultural sectors.

Refugee Voices is a new organisation, founded in 2020. What is its long-term vision?

We envision a future where the voices of refugees are respected and amplified and the Australian community welcomes and supports people seeking asylum. Our aim is for all campaigns around protecting the rights of refugees to be led by people with lived experience of seeking asylum.

Thanks for taking the time to speak to me and Refugee Research Online. What are the best ways for people to support Refugee Voices?

There are so many ways for people to get involved. It is true that we are refugee-led organisation but, the expertise and support of the broader community is a vital element to our work. Therefore we would like to see more people volunteer their time with us a get involved in grassroots and upper root activities including pressuring MPs and changing discourse around people seeking asylum in Australia. Also, we are a community-based organisation and our funding comes from members of the community and people who care about the cause. Any donations will put a smile on our face. This not because we are happy that we see dollars, but seeing that the community believes in us and our capability to run campaigns and change this harmful, racist and inhumane policy.

Donations to Refugee Voices can be made here.