Tag Archives: refugees

Immigration issues were at the top of the agenda in a meeting between His Beatitude Mar Meelis Zaia AM and Mr Haval Aziz Syan, the representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq along with Mr Samir Yousif, the Mayor of Fairfield City.

The US has now acknowledged the financial plight of persecuted Christian communities and is willing to make available financial assistance, according to the International Director of the Barnabas Fund, Reverend Canon Dr Patrick Sookhdeo.

A successful seminar on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq was held on Thursday 28th of August 2008 at Sydney University’s Footbridge Theatre. Organised as a joint initiative between the NSW Ecumenical Council and Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, the seminar brought together three experts who have seen first-hand the situation affecting the Iraqi people. The speakers were His Grace Bishop Mar Meelis Zaia AM of the Assyrian Church of the East, Ms. Donna Mulhearm who has worked with Human Shield in Iraq and the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Associate Professor Jake Lynch. Focusing on the impact of the coalition-led intervention and its devastating consequences, the seminar also emphasised the actions that Australia and other governments need to take in order to address the humanitarian crisis they have inadvertently help to create. Current UN estimates report that over 4 million people have been directly affected, with 2 million internally displaced in Iraq and a further 2 million living as refugees in the surrounding countries such as Syria and Jordan. His Grace Mar Meelis presented on the situation of the Christian Assyrians of Iraq and the efforts of the Assyrian Church of the East …