The World Peace Day Youth Forum was a great success with students from St Raphael's Catholic School and Cowra High School getting involved.
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The students were treated to talks from two guest speakers, Thomas Albrecht, Regional Director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Bede Carmody from Amnesty International.
Mr Carmody spoke about his work with Amnesty International, and the organisation's goal to help refugees find their voice.
"Amnesty is campaigning to change peoples attitudes."
"We want refugees to be treated with respect and compassion, no matter how they arrive," he said.
Mr Carmody went on to say that in Australia our acceptance of refugees has deteriorated over the past 20 years.
"We used to accept refugees from conflicts we were involved in," he said.
"Until recently where we have closed our doors, especially to refugees from Iraq where our forces have been for some time," he said.
"We also treat them different depending on how they arrive.
"Those who arrive on boats are taken off shore to processing centres, where they could be held for years, those who over stay visas only to apply for refugee status are processed in the community.
"Ninety percent of those who come by boat are proven to be legitimate refugees, while most who claim to be refugees after overstaying visas are sent home," Mr Carmody said.
Mr Albrecht also spoke to the students, explaining why they should accept refugees.
"Refugees are just people like you and I and they deserve to live free of harm from their governments," he said.
"Most refugees only flee to neighbouring countries, hoping to escape persecution and then go home when their countries have become peaceful, they usually only look to go somewhere to settle forever once they have no hope of ever going home."
"I think we learnt this with Anne Frank, a very well known refugee.
"Her family ran to a neighbouring country, and we all know how that ended, they all died at the hands of their persecutors.
"This is why we need to help refugees, to stop them from the same fate," he said.
The students sat and listened intently to both men speak before asking their own questions.
What is the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee?
Thomas Albrecht explained.
"Basically a refugee is a person with a fear of being persecuted based on ethnicity, political belief or religion.
"They are a refugee the moment they are outside their home country, and do not need documents to confirm their refugee status.
"If the person is an asylum seeker they have documents to prove that they are seeking asylum, and have gone through government channels to have this determined.
"They don't need to retell their story over again, because they have documentation," he said.
Bede Carmody agreed with Mr Albrecht and said that it can be difficult for refugees to attain documents to allow them to seek asylum.
"Here in Australia if we wanted to go and get a passport we would just go down to the local post office," he said.
"In these countries, which in many cases have been war torn for quite some time, it is not that easy to obtain documents, as they are often blocked by those in power," he said.
How many people are processed and why does it take so long?
Mr Albrecht answered this question.
"That is a good question, and perhaps we need some people from the government to explain it," he said.
"In actual fact it is a bit of a dilemma, at the moment there are around 3-4 thousand applications for asylum being processed, with a back log of 30 000.
"They are not being processed because the government wants to change legislation," he said.
"In 2012, Australia had 20 000 refugees knocking on its door, Germany accepted 89 560 and South Africa took in 230 432, which proves how small the amount of claims here are.
We have a number of South Sudanese families here in Cowra, can you describe the situation?
Mr Carmody answered this question.
"For decades the conflicts in Sudan were some of the worlds greatest atrocities.
"Most of the Sudanese population were displaced, moving from one town to another trying to escape the never ending violence.
"It did become peaceful when South Sudan were named their own country, however that turmoil has begun again, I couldn't even begin to describe the horrific things those people have seen."
Where do refugees in to Australia come from"
Mr Carmody answered this question.
"It varies, there are peaks and troughs, here in Australia, over the last few years we have seen a lot of refugees come from Sudan, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan.
"With most fleeing war-torn situations where they are being persecuted based on their ethnicity or religion," he said.
The students thanked the speakers for spending time with them and for helping them understand key issues in relation to refugees here in Australia and around the world.