The President of the Uniting Church in Australia Stuart McMillan has joined faith representatives and members of Parliament in Canberra today to support renewed efforts to restore some compassion to Australia’s asylum seeker policies.

Uniting Justice National Director Rev. Elenie Poulos and Uniting Church in Australia President Stuart McMillan were two of 230 signatories on a citizens manifesto calling for changes to Australia's asylum seeker policy. The statement seeks policies based on humanitarian principles, calls for an end to locking away innocent men women and children, and envisions a country that sees asylum seekers as an opportunity not a problem.

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia Stuart McMillan has welcomed the Federal Government’s offer of permanent resettlement to over 12,000 refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria.

The Uniting Church in Australia is today calling on the Government to commit to a significant increase in Australia’s refugee intake as a response to the crisis in Syria.

“While we welcome the Federal Government’s commitment to increase our refugee intake from Syria, the scale of this crisis requires a much greater response,” said Uniting Church President Mr Stuart McMillan.

The Uniting Church is renewing its call for the immediate closure of the Nauru detention centre after another damning report into the centre’s operations.

UnitingJustice has written to all crossbench Senators urging them to vote against the "Use of Force" Bill. This Bill seeks to give permission for increased use of force against asylum seekers in immigration detention centres without proper definition of "reasonable force". Such use of force is likely to increase the already significant risk to the mental, emotional and physical safety and security of asylum seekers rather than decrease it.

The Uniting Church in Australia is calling on Australians to “take five” for refugees during Refugee Week which begins on Sunday 14 June.

The Uniting Church in Australia is one of more than 100 Australian organisations calling for an immediate moratorium on transfers to immigration detention facilities on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

On Wednesday 4 March 2015, UnitingJustice Australia sent a letter to all Federal Members and Senators endorsing the recommendations from the Australian Human Rights Commission's The Forgotten Children report. 

The Uniting Church has joined with over 200 organisations to express dismay at the significant harm and abuse suffered by children in immigration detention and to call upon the Government to introduce legislation that prevents children from being detained, ends the offshore processing of asylum seekers, and refers allegations of child abuse to a Royal Commission.