The Vietnamese community in Australia has pledged $500,000 to support the work of the United Nations refugee agency as it struggles to support 65 million displaced people around the globe.

The announcement was made at a ceremony in Sydney where a cheque for $250,000 was presented to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Australian national director Naomi Steer.

The contribution was made by more than 800 people who attended a Vietnamese community fundraising dinner in Sydney.

Another $250,000 has been pledged by Vietnamese communities in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

The current refugee crisis has forced over 65 million people to flee their homes due to conflict and violence — even more than at the end of WWII. Children account for around half that number.

The UN’s humanitarian agencies are struggling to meet the basic needs of millions of people because of the size of the crisis.

Ms Steer said the funds have never been needed more.

“We are enormously grateful for the Vietnamese community’s mobilisation around this humanitarian crisis another sign of the difference every day Australians are making to help support those displaced by conflict,” Ms Steer said.

“Recent events in Syria and across the Mediterranean Sea have clearly resonated strongly for those who know the human story behind the headlines.”

A spokesman for the Vietnamese Community in Australia, Dr Tien Nguyen, said the UNHCR had provided significant help to Vietnamese people when they were refugees in the 1970s and 1980s.

“This is nothing compared to what the UNHCR have to spend for 65 million displaced people around the world at this time,” Dr Nguyen said.

“It is a tremendous burden for the UNHCR and we are glad that we can contribute a fraction of the cost to help them help other people in need.”

Many thousands of Vietnamese arrived in Australia as refugees and are one of Australia’s great success stories of refugee resettlement, with the community considered one of the most successfully integrated in Australian society.

Dr Nguyen believes there are similarities with all refugees across the globe and he was very grateful for the work the UNHCR does.

“People that leave everything behind and risk their lives over the sea or over the mountain, it is a difficult decision to make and we cannot take it lightly,” he said.

“In the seventies, we risked sailing across a vast ocean in a tiny little boat to run away from the communists.

“I believe that people now leaving war-torn countries in the Middle East and other places, they had to go through similar situations, go through similar feelings and confront similar hardship as we did in the ’70s and ’80s.

“So to me, everybody who has a refugee claim should be examined, should be assessed properly and treating them humanely, that’s my feeling,” Dr Nguyen said.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist