<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/19/juan-arrived-in-australia-to-a-stocked-pantry-and-kind-faces-the-government-pilot-that-allowed-it-is-here-to-stay-too-ntwnfb>
"For Juan Santamaria, arriving on the other side of the world to a pantry
filled with food from his native Venezuela was a warm welcome on a cold day.
A criminal lawyer in his home country who fled fearing for his life, Santamaria
came to Australia with his parents and sister under a government pilot program
for community groups to sponsor refugees to resettle in Australia.
“We were able to arrive in Australia with temporary accommodation, where we
found a fully equipped house, including a pantry stocked with typical food from
our country.
“From the very first moment we arrived we received the solidarity and
willingness to help from the Australian community.”
Arriving on an unusually frigid summer evening in Melbourne, Santamaria’s
sponsorship group had even negotiated with an airport chaplain to help smooth
the passage through Australia’s customs and immigration.
“Meeting [the group] is something we will never forget: they welcomed us with
banners and a hug that conveyed a lot of trust and confidence that we would be
fine.”
The federal government will announce Thursday morning that the pilot program
which brought the Santamarias to Australia – the Community Refugee Integration
and Settlement Pilot (Crisp) – will now be made a permanent part of Australia’s
humanitarian migration program."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
