Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia (Inc.)20 View Street, North Perth 6006 Ph: 92275322 Fax: 92275460 eccwa.info@gmail.com www.eccwa.org.au www.facebook.com/ECCWA

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Sunday June 30 2013

ETHNIC COMMUNITIES COUNCIL of WESTERN AUSTRALIA and the WA AFRICAN – AUSTRALIAN AND PEAK BODIES REFUTE PROBLEM YOUTH CLAIMS.Neither the Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia (ECCWA) or the African- Australian Community Council of Western Australia (AACCWA) is aware of any perceived or expressed significant threat by Perth’s East African youth.ECCWA President, Ms Kim Luby called for research evidence which supported assertions that youth from Perth’s African community were violent and a threat to the community.“These stories have discounted the work being done by the Western Australian Government, Police and Perth community groups to establish and maintain productive working relationships with Western Australia’s African nations community. ACCWA executive member, Dr Siyat Abdi said that the views and opinions expressed in the West Australian articles contrasted significantly with the views held by African parents and the broader African community.While acknowledging that the two African youths who spoke out in the media last week felt ‘disaffected, disenchanted and extremely angry’, the ACCWA said that they did not speak for the majority of African Australian youth and that this did not constitute a threat and if it did, police intelligence would have detected it and put strategies in place to deal with it by now.“Ninety percent of Perth’s African refugee youth are in school or training programs and a number of refugee youth who have graduated from Curtin University are now professionals either employed or employable by government agencies to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate programs to Western Australia’s African community”, he said. Referring to criticisms made by Pastor Simon Yuer Dang about Australian laws that prohibit traditional forms of child discipline in African nation families, Dr Abdi said that Western Australia’s African - Australians are law abiding citizens and residents who believe in proper childrearing and discipline in their homes. “Family values have a greater impact on, and play the most important role in, their child’s future behaviour. The African Australian Community Council of Western Australia will never support Mr Yuer Dangs’s position on changing Australian laws to accommodate what are seen as minority views and interests in our community”, Dr Siyat said.

Ms Luby said that the media stories racially profiled one African nation community as prone to violence and criminality.“Singling out parents and youth from one particular community for scrutiny is unfair and leaves members of those communities vulnerable to racial hatred and discrimination, as evidenced in the West Australian’s letters column last week.”, she said.Ms Luby went on to say that it was an historical fact that every new and emerging community starting life in Australia, since the beginning of the nation’s migration program, has had to contend with family problems as a result of cultural and generational differences. “All new migrant families, including Greek, Italian, Indian, Middle Eastern and Asian have had to face the challenges of assimilation and how to deal with their children wanting to adopt and aspire to Western culture and customs’, she saidDr Abdi said that while there was concern about the growing number of migrant youths in Western Australian prisons, African – Australians had the human resource capacity to play a leadership role on issues concerning and affecting their community.“The AACCWA will be working collaboratively with law enforcement and government agencies to stem this growing trend and to ensure that all ethnic African communities prospered and lived well and peacefully in their new homeland”.“We of the African Australian community have come of age and are capable of steering the ship of collective assimilation into mainstream Australia”, he said.Ms Luby said that refugees and refugee families needed to be provided with up to date pre departure, cultural information before they entered mainstream western society.This would lessen the impact of assimilation into a culture that is radically different from their own, educate them about Australian laws and be more capable of making an informed decision about whether or not they wanted to raise their children in Australia or not, she said.

Further comments are available from the following spokespersons:Ms Kim Luby 0421 670 361 ECCWA Dr Siyat Abdi 0413 818 497 AACCWA

Dr Peters Ibekwe 0415 531 252 African Community Spokesperson