Asylum Seekers Support Project (ASSP)

https://bridgeforasylumseekers.org.au/

ASSP’s financial support gives people seeking asylum, including children, living allowances and, where needed to prevent homelessness, rental support. Living allowances meet essential needs of food, clothing and pharmaceuticals. Allowances also enable transport and phone access, which in turn enables contact with the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA), legal representatives and caseworkers as well as the ability to seek employment. While rates change depending upon unique client situations, ASSP provides eligible households with an average $120/wk for basic living expenses (less than a third of JobSeeker) & an accommodation subsidy of $210/wk average for those in danger of homelessness. ASSP clients are on valid visas and receive no other financial support. All are waiting for those applications to be processed – this can take many months, if not years. Before receiving our funding, their financial situation will have been reviewed to show insufficient funds to survive. Using the services of reputable migration lawyers, all will have applied for protection from Australia or be in the process of doing so. ASSP clients all have one thing in common. They have fled from countries where their government supported persecution – for political, religious, ethnic, gender, sexual-orientation, and other reasons. Many have experienced torture and have been imprisoned or threatened with imprisonment for non-criminal reasons.