ON his first day in Geelong, asylum seeker Leo Seemanpillai knocked on the door of Grovedale’s St Paul’s Lutheran Church and found it locked. He knocked again on his second day, then again the next, then again until his knocking…

ASYLUM seeker Leo Seemanpillai dreamt of rescuing his Tamil family from exile in a refugee camp in India. He told them regularly of his hope for them to join him in Geelong where he had found so much peace and…

The forced turn-back of asylum seeker boats to Indonesia has overwhelming public support in Australia, bolstering Prime Minister Tony Abbott as he sits down on Wednesday with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. A new poll also finds almost two-thirds of Australians…

THE Coalition will introduce legislation aimed at fast-tracking the refugee claims of asylum-seekers in Australia in a bid to clear the backlog of almost 25,000 boat arrivals in legal limbo. As the first refugee decisions are issued to detainees on…

Labor is gravely concerned about the Abbott government’s Cambodian resettlement deal but won’t say whether it will seek to block it. Australia is on the verge of signing a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia, which would allow refugees processed on…

People at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder – the unemployed, young people, pensioners and refugees and asylum seekers – will be hardest hit by the swingeing cuts and changes to benefits and services in the 2014 Federal Budget. Treasurer…

The Government says young people need to ‘earn or learn’ to move away from welfare reliance but youth welfare groups fear that, with a loss of funding, thousands of young people could fall through the cracks. Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s4005557.htm

More than twenty AMES youth students have taken part in a lawn bowls pilot program over the past two weeks at Blackburn Bowls Club. Now four students say they want to come and play on Saturdays. The club sees it as…

Around twenty AMES students from Dandenong and Noble Park recently attended a migrant youth employment forum at Monash University’s Berwick campus. The students were eager to explore employment opportunities and make contacts with a range of employers – including Coles,…

They are affectionately known as “The Three Musketeers” and for the past ten years they have been volunteering to help new arrivals to Australia learn English. Al Nakonesky, Sarvesh Somana and Ed Mooney are all in their seventies and have…

The Abbott Government is facing fierce and united opposition from influential ethnic groups over its proposed changes to racial discrimination laws, with one warning in a formal submission that the amendments will lead to race riots like those seen in…

The Cambodian government has agreed in principle to take in refugees from the Australian run detention centre on Nauru. Read more: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/asia/radio/program/pacific-beat/cambodia-agrees-in-principle-to-accept-refugees-from-nauru/1303046