Outrage over town's rejection of refugees / Sudanese "betrayed" by mayor's comments

Four newer stories that somewhat update last night's batch:

From the "Sydney Morning Herald" (also reprinted on Sudan.Net)...

A DECISION by Tamworth City Council to shun five refugee families from Sudan has been criticised by residents, refugee bodies and politicians, who have branded it shameful and racist.

Residents of other New England towns, such as Armidale and Inverell, have spoken about how Sudanese families have successfully settled in their communities.

The president of Armidale's Sanctuary Humanitarian Settlement, Jan Wyles, said six Sudanese groups had settled "mostly very well" in her town.

Diktor Malok, 26, a Sudanese refugee who moved to Tamworth almost 18 months ago, said that after hearing of the council's decision he was "worried the people of Tamworth will want to kick us out".

"Mostly they are very friendly, but you get some people who say, 'What are you doing in our town?' which makes me sad. We don't do anything bad to the Australian people at all. I encourage peace always."

The Mayor of Tamworth, James Treloar, said the community was concerned it would face "a Cronulla-riots-type situation" if it accepted the families. "Ask the people at Cronulla if they want more refugees," he said this week.

The town did not have enough health and education services to support the refugees, he said.

Bruce Baird, the federal MP for Cook, which includes Cronulla, called the comments shameful and said a meeting of churches in his electorate had agreed unanimously to help resettle Sudanese refugees in the area.

"[Councillor] Treloar's comments about Cronulla are ill-informed," he said. "His community stands alone in turning away people in genuine need."

[Councillor] Treloar also questioned the Department of Immigration's ability to screen the refugees for diseases such as tuberculosis.

The Refugee Council of Australia said the council's decision was based on ignorance.

From the "Australian" (also reprinted on Sudan.Net)...

SINCE moving from Sudan to Australia two years ago, Henry Tombek has tried to live life "the Australian way".

"We all try to follow the rules of this country," said the 23-year-old abattoir worker, who has made the northern NSW city of Tamworth his home.

So has fellow countryman Akoi Manyiel Guong, 29, who has just gained citizenship and has lived in Adelaide since 2004. "I have to accept the system here. I want to carry on part of my culture at the same time, but if there are conflicting issues I have to compromise some of them, this is my understanding of what being a citizen means," he said.

Mr Tombek says he and his family have been made to feel welcome by most Australians.

But he feels betrayed by what he describes as racist comments from Tamworth Mayor James Treloar, who said "cultural differences" were why hundreds of locals were opposed to the additional settlement of five families from Sudan.

Tamworth City Council voted this week to refuse an offer by the Immigration Department to resettle the families after public submissions showed there was mistrust of the Sudanese, Mr Treloar said.

"The community has expressed enormous concerns of mistrust against the Sudanese people, and I think this is largely based on previous events like the Cronulla riots," he said.

"It's a matter of cultural differences, and the sexual harassment of females unfortunately is just one of the problems."

In the past year, several Sudanese residents had been charged with driving offences and one with sexual assault, Mr Treloar said yesterday [Friday, Australian time]. But rather than rejecting five specific families, the town was in fact rejecting a refugee resettlement program that was under-resourced and fraught with problems.

"It's not a colour issue," he said. "We have 80 different cultural groups in Tamworth. If you ask someone from a different cultural background, they would tell you Tamworth is not racist.

"But because we have a negative view of the department's program, we are suddenly racist."

Councillors received 492 submissions and questionnaires on the proposal, 400 of which opposed the settlement plan.

But Toowoomba Mayor Dianne Thorley said the significant Sudanese population in the Queensland city were no different to any other group on crime rates. "There are plenty of Australians who don't obey the law, I wouldn't single out the Sudanese. A whole lot of people here support the Sudanese -- that's what we do as Australians."

But for Mr Tombek, it's a worry. "We work hard and we don't cause problems. I don't understand why people think such bad things about us."

From the ABC (program transcript)...

PETER CAVE: A decision by the Tamworth City Council to reject a group of Sudanese refugees is continuing to stir up controversy.

The council says there aren't enough support services to cater for the newcomers.

But the Tamworth Mayor admits there are locals who don't want the refugees because they could inflame, what he called, "Cronulla-style" tensions.

With the famous Tamworth music festival just weeks away, business leaders and artists say that the decision will tarnish the town's reputation.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: The Tamworth Council has decided it can't support five Sudanese refugee families that the Department of Immigration wants to resettle in the district. There's been a public meeting and a survey on the proposal. And the Tamworth Mayor says it's clear the services in Tamworth are already overstretched and can't cope with the special needs of the refugee group.

JAMES TRELOAR: When we had our public meeting and the various responses we got back, we got a lot of, I suppose you could call them redneck responses, you know, we haven't got enough water for our community, we're on water restrictions. So, you were able to dismiss those concerns, but the really genuine concerns, such as, we have got medical problems that the program hasn't been able to satisfy, a total mistrust of both state and Federal Government in terms of, you established this program, how many times before have we seen programs established and without even a change of government we find that the program fades away. So, I think they are some of the issues.

EMILY BOURKE: But these issues are surfacing as the town prepares for next month's Country Music Awards. Jeanette Wormald is heading to the awards after being nominated for a Golden Guitar. She says the decision by council doesn't sound like the Tamworth she knows.

JEANETTE WORMALD: In my experience, I've always found Tamworth to be very welcoming, it's got a strong sense of civic pride, it's a beautiful city to drive through, its tourist facilities are excellent. So, it's got so much going for it, yeah, it would be sad if any decisions made would actually detract from all that it has to offer.

EMILY BOURKE: Max Cathcart is from the Tamworth district Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He says the issues have fired up the emotion of locals.

MAX CATHCART: Our local paper and I know other papers have picked it up, that since the council made their determination, there has been a strong outburst against the decision the council made.

EMILY BOURKE: Do you think this decision will reflect badly on Tamworth?

MAX CATHCART: I've got no doubt, knowing that a number of regional towns and cities throughout New South Wales have already taken the step to accept a limited number of refugees. I think that it is a reflection and it will reflect on Tamworth, and I feel that it will be somewhat of a negative effect.

EMILY BOURKE: He says Tamworth, unlike many drought-stricken regional towns in Australia, is thriving with an influx of business and new residents. And he dismisses the notion that Tamworth can't accommodate a few extra families.

MAX CATHCART: We have people moving back inland from the coast, from the Central Coast, from metropolitan areas. We have a significant tree change and what I call returnees, people that grew up in Tamworth have down to the cities and have attained professionalism and that, and they've returned to Tamworth to bring up their families and to establish businesses in Tamworth. And we have quite a number of those.

So I think it's a little bit narrow to say that we are not providing, sure, right throughout the region of New South Wales we are short of many health services, but to say that we can't provide for another five families I think is a bit ridiculous if you look at the total influx of people that are coming to Tamworth.

PETER CAVE: Max Cathcart from the Tamworth district Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ending Emily Bourke's report.

From AAP...

Civic leaders in the New South Wales city of Tamworth have been accused of fuelling racial hatred by rejecting five Sudanese refugee families.

Tamworth City Council has voted to refuse an offer by the Immigration Department to resettle five refugee families from the war-torn African nation.

It feared cultural differences and a lack of services could lead to increased violence in the city, which is home to the world-renowned country music festival.

Mayor James Treloar said public submissions showed there was a clear sense of mistrust in the town, after several existing Sudanese residents were charged with driving offences and one with sexual assault.

"The community has expressed enormous concerns of mistrust against the Sudanese people, I think this is largely based on previous events like the Cronulla riots," he said.

"It's a matter of cultural differences, and the sexual harassment of females unfortunately is just one of the problems."

Mr Treloar said Sudanese refugees in Tamworth had proved they do not share the city's values or respect authority.

But Tamworth councillor Diane Carter, who voted for the settlement program, said the mayor's comments fuelled racial hatred within a small minority of the community.

"As head of the crime prevention committee I can confirm that there has been no increase in violence since the arrival of Sudanese refugees, the offences that have been recorded are in the normal range for young men of that age, and the police are not concerned at all," she said.

Ms Carter also said the mayor's comments were misleading because there were more than 12 Sudanese people already living in the Tamworth community.

She said she was appalled at the council's decision and criticised the consultation process.

"Self surveys never show the full picture of an issue, if the council really wanted to get a indication of the views in the community they would have done a random survey targeting various age groups and demographics," she said.

Chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, Paul Power, said the attitudes of the Tamworth council were generating a fear of people with coloured skin and that the community would suffer.

"There has been a positive record of integrating refugees into communities who have benefited greatly from this, Tamworth is simply closing itself off from those benefits," he said.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said there was no evidence Tamworth should fear settling the Sudanese refugees.

"Where they've got evidence that they have something to fear, well, then that's a matter for the appropriate authorities," he told ABC radio.

"But where they haven't that, people ought not to be punished for something they haven't done."

Tamworth has been under consideration as a new regional settlement location since last year, with a public forum on the initiative held on 31 July this year.

Councillors received 492 submissions and questionnaires regarding the proposal, 400 of which Mr Treloar said opposed the settlement program.

"Four hundred community responses didn't want the program, I think these people identified the failing program in Toowoomba," he said.

"Some will see this as a racist community but the reality has identified significant shortfalls in the program offered by the department (Department of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs)," he said.

Mr Treloar said the council would not reconsider the proposal unless the department was prepared to take the community's concerns into consideration.