First refugee families welcomed to Australia under new community sponsorship program

George and his family are among the fortunate first to be resettled in Australia under the new Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot, which allows community groups across the country to sponsor new refugees.

Displaced from his homeland Syria for nearly half of his life, George has barely had the chance to go to school.

For his father, Shadi, to see his 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, Elinor, in a classroom will be the realisation of a dream.

Arriving in Sydney on a wintry, rainy Friday night, George and Elinor clutched a toy bilby and a koala, gifts from their sponsor group. They tried their first Caramello Koala chocolates.

Shadi said the chance to restart lives shattered by the brutality of war was a dream come true for his family.

Shayne Davy is the leader of an eight-person group, formed through the Gosford Anglican church, that is sponsoring the Al Daoud family to settle on the New South Wales Central Coast.

Sponsor groups are responsible for assisting refugee families with initial housing when they land, as well as assisting them in navigating the quotidian elements of life in their new country: opening a bank account, enrolling children in school, accessing Medicare and Centrelink.

Button has led the campaign for years for an Australian community sponsorship program. After years of lobbying, and an internal government review, the CRISP program was announced by the previous government in December. The first three families, referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, arrived in Australia this week.

During the pandemic border closures, CRSA ran mentorship training programs, allowing family groups to assist refugees already in the country and to prepare them for new arrivals.

Australia has attempted community sponsorship previously, but the models have foundered, flawed by being prohibitively expensive, small and restrictive in who was allowed to apply.