Please help Etienne

Hi fans of Vox Congo,

It's been a while since i posted you an update. Papy and Martinse are enjoying full residency here in Australia which is fantastic and they thank you all so much for your love and active support.

Etienne and Adolphe however still fight for the right to stay in Australia and are currently still seeking asylum under a bridging visa which they have to re-apply for every 2 months. their immigration officer has been very supportive of them and their situation as they suffer let down after let down.

Recently they have been told by Australian immigration that they are classed as persons with no state, that is their country of origin won't recognize them and Australia have also rejected them. One major problem here is that in the 7 years they have been here wading through bureaucratictape and many application and appeals processes, their passports have expired and the Democratic Republic of the Congo refuse to co-operate with Australian immigration to issue new passports so Australian immigration have informed them that they are stuck here. yet they have no right of residency, no Medicare, no government financial support, etc. They essentially live off charity.

After talking with Etienne and Adolphe, and their immigration officer I have decided to help by co-ordinating a letter writing campaign to gather as much community support as possible to show our government that they are loved and wanted in our country. At the moment Etienne is the one we are writting letters for as they are both on different time lines.

I have hosted 2 documents on our church websites for those who want to jump on board and show they support. My aim is to get 1000 letters for Etienne. Check the links below.

Write a personal charachter reference letter for Etienne

Use this general letter as a petition to gather as many signatures as possible

For this letter writing campaign we are appealing to the Minister for Immigration to exersice his power with compassion to overturn a previous ruling to reject Etienne's application for asylum.

Please post your messages of support here and I will pass them on. Download the PDF files above and send your responses to me by the end of june if possible.

Thanks, Mark Riessen
for Vox Congo