COMMUNITY advocates hope to highlight the difficulties refugees currently face during refugee week.
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The Rural Australians for Refugees Bendigo will kick off the week off with an information forum this Wednesday.
Group convenor Christine Cummins said the forum would provide a summary of the latest information about refugees onshore and offshore, along with the latest national and local campaigns in advocacy.
"There is always so much going on in this space and people aren't always aware of any changes in legislation that happens or in campaigns," she said.
"We thought it was a good opportunity to gather people together to give them the latest facts and numbers and any updates in current campaigns."
Ms Cummins said the forum will also hear from guest speaker, Sr Brigid Arthur who will appear via Zoom.
Sr Arthur is a refugee advocate and co-founder of the Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project.
"For 20 years Sr Brigid has been a relentless campaigner for human rights, supporting refugees in immigration detention and recently the men held in hotel detention (Medevac men)," Ms Cummin said.
For the Bendigo advocacy group, refugee week is a significant time on the calendar.
"It's important to raise awareness around the impact and journey people have to take to seek asylum," she said.
"It's also great to highlight some of the personal stories but also the impacts we see nowadays with our current immigration policies... The impact even in our local Bendigo community is quite severe.
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"It's essential to run these forums and have these weeks otherwise people may jump to the wrong conclusion and buy into some really negative propaganda out there.
"It's important to educate people and raise awareness and to hopefully invite people to look a little further into that area and welcome people into our community."
The information forum is a free event, however patrons are required to register here due to COVIDSafe protocols.
The event will be held at La Trobe University's McKay Lecture Theatre t 5.30on on Wednesday June 23.
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