CatholicCare Toowoomba cuts staff at TRAMS refugee service supporting Yazidis after failing to secure $200k from federal government

A Toowoomba organisation that supports thousands of the city’s most marginalised residents fears for their wellbeing after it was forced to halve its workforce over shortfall in federal funding.

Thousands of Toowoomba’s most vulnerable residents could be left more isolated and disconnected from the community — all because of a funding shortfall worth 0.00003 per cent of this year’s federal budget.

Organisation CatholicCare will halve the workforce of its Toowoomba Refugee and Migrant Support (TRAMS) service from July, after failing to resecure a mere $120,000 that was cut by the previous federal government three years ago.

It is cruelly ironic news during Refugee Week, while also coinciding with the Garden City celebrating 10 years since it was designated as a refugee welcome zone.

The TRAMS program is an essential resettlement tool for Toowoomba’s growing Yazidi population, a persecuted ethnoreligious minority who fled Iraq and Syria from persecution by ISIS and civil war.

It is believed Toowoomba is home to as many as 4000 Yazidi men, women and children, many of whom are suffering significant trauma-related issues and still struggling with language, employment, cultural and educational barriers.

Census data shows Kurdish is now the second-most spoken language at home in Toowoomba, with the city hosting nearly 20 per cent of all Kurdish-speaking people living in Australia.

Concerned by CatholicCare's loss of funding for the Toowoomba Refugee and Migrant Support (TRAMS) service and its impacts on the city's Yazidi community are (from left) coordinator Stewart Horton, case worker-in-training Nayif Rasho, case worker Akol Mager, CatholicCare CEO Kate Venables and Diverse Queensland Workforce coordinator Linda Partridge.

After spending more than $500,000 of its own money to keep the program intact, CatholicCare CEO Kate Venables said TRAMS would feature just two workers for more than 700 clients and their families.

“As we realised we weren’t going to get that funding, we asked our board to use our reserves while we found our further funding,” she said.

“We thought it would bring an ‘aha’ moment, but sadly we think we’ve been blurring the reality of the funding problem.

“It means people will go on a waitlist (and) have to be triaged, and people will have to put on hold queries regarding citizenship, housing and employment.

“Mainstream organisations who call every week will not be supported and what we’ll see is the community will have to wear the brunt of this burden.”

Ms Venables said $200,000 on top of its current $280,000 funding would not only fully-fund the program but pay for a free interpreter to support a community she said desperately needed it.

“If the world was our oyster, we would need $400,000 a year, we’re getting $280,000 now through the Settlement Engagement and Transition Support program,” she said.

“We think they should pay for interpreting, it said the Translating and Interpreting National service supports non-government organisation that but we (have asked) many times (for $80,000) and it’s a conversation that has gone nowhere.”

Ms Venables said she feared less support would lead to less integration and higher rates of social issues, for both adults and children.

Concerned by CatholicCare's loss of funding for the Toowoomba Refugee and Migrant Support (TRAMS) service and its impacts on the city's Yazidi community are case worker-in-training Nayif Rasho and CatholicCare CEO Kate Venables.

One of those to be let go is case worker-in-training and interpreter Nayif Rasho, a Yazidi man from northern Iraq.

He held serious concerns for his community once the realities of the funding shortfalls were felt.

“Things like immigration, visas and citizenship, they need support with this and they can’t get that now,” Mr Rasho said.

“They had already lost two years because of Covid and they still need support.”

Acting mayor Geoff McDonald said mayor Paul Antonio would likely next week draft a letter urging Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil to come to Toowoomba.

“It’s a real challenge at the moment — this SETS program is critical for allowing these people to make a go at it,” he said.

“Even when funding isn’t cut, numbers aren’t cut — there needs to be a correlation between the numbers and the funding, and now we’re seeing Yazidi people who have settled in our region (from across Australia), because they’re being told Toowoomba is a place to go.

“The first step is to make representations and invite them to come up.”

Ms O’Neil’s office was contacted for comment.