Community rallies behind refugee family

Susan Austin, Hobart

When the news broke on March 30 that a local El Salvadoran family was being threatened with deportation, the Socialist Alliance and Tasmanians for Refugees called a protest action for that afternoon.

The Refugee Review Tribunal had refused the family's application to stay in Australia and gave Vanessa Ceren (who is more than seven months' pregnant), her partner Nestor Rodriguez and their three children 30 days to leave the country. The family suffered political persecution in El Salvador before fleeing to Australia in 2004. All their family members now live in Hobart.

Thirty people attended the protest, which launched a campaign to raise funds for a legal appeal and build community support for the family. Within hours of the protest being announced, phones were ringing hot with people volunteering financial and legal assistance. Two Labor MPs, the Greens and the socialist youth organisation Resistance are also supporting the campaign.

From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.

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From GLW issue 663