so blind it's scary

today i had training at RMIT as a support student for new students starting at rmit in the refugee assist scheme. I knew nothing about refugees in Australia when I volunteered for this, and now i am ashamed. i'm still thinking about it all, this is my own place to rant and rail at the world but i'm still too sad. but luckily i'm also angry.
Basically if you arrive in Australia without a visa, you're an asylum seeker and you go into detention, and you can stay there for a long time. If you're lucky, you're accepted as a refugee by the government and issued with a temporary protection visa (TPV). This means you don't have to live in the detention centre anymore. The visas only last for 3 years or 5 years, and if you aren't granted permanent refugee status after that, you go back into detention until you're sent back to the country where you were too scared to live in the first place.
People on TPVs have no rights under Australian Law - as a matter of fact neither do Australians. We have no independent Bill of Rights and are therefore at the mercy of policies set by whichever government is in power.
It's worse on TPVs, however. Not only are you unsure how long you might be able to stay in Australia, but your family can't come and visit you, even for a holiday, and DIMIA can throw you back in the detention centre if they say you have broken any rules.
You cannot get money from Centrelink.
You cannot earn money by working.
If you are caught working for cash-in-hand, you will lose your visa.
You are not provided with accommodation.
You are not provided with food.
You can only go to uni as a full-fee paying international student (except at rmit)
You cannot access ANY government services such as medicare or english language studies.

Some charities are able to provide a limited number of refugees with money ($25/week) or board, and some local people let refugees come and live with them for free.
This is a hidden third-world country within our own first-world society, our "most livable" city.

It gets worse. Some asylum seekers have been in detention centres for a long time(5 years, 8 years) with no possibility of permanent refugee status. They won't be sent back to their country of origin (for example if your country of origin no longer exists, like Kashmir) but they won't be allowed to be permanent refugees. They get a "removal-pending bridging visa" which means they're permanently without resources, permanently threatened with return to detention, but the government no longer has to pay for their food or bed in the detention centre either.

For the last few months I've been looking at working with ngo's in developing countries. There are all kinds of projects based on designing products that locals can make and sell to generate income. I think this kind of project will work here in Australia for refugees. Maybe it already exists, i have a lot of work to do.

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.abc.net.au/cnnnn/firthfactor/img/ep08firth03.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.abc.net.au/cnnnn/firthfactor/s720615.htm&h=180&w=240&sz=10&tbnid=af-Nfy-5uhNyKM:&tbnh=78&tbnw=104&hl=en&start=9&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drefugees%2Bin%2Baustralia%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2005-03,GGLD:en