By Ann Marie Angebrandt
NEW Wyndham resident Kyawsoe Aye has had first-hand experiences with police, and they’re all bad.
While living as a refugee in north Thailand, the 28-year-old Burmese man recalls how the Thai police arrested and beat him, then stole his meagre wages of about $200.
The money was the total he’d earned from two months work as a farm labourer.
Some of his Karen tribe compatriots were treated even worse by the police, the men killed for no reason, and the women raped, he said.
Victoria Police multi-cultural liaison officer Richard Dove said it was little wonder many refugees had negative views of police once they emigrate to Australia, given those kinds of experiences.
“There’s often a high degree of mistrust of police whether they’re from Africa or Asia,” he said.
“Part of what we try to do is break down those barriers.”
About 100 refugee settlers, mainly of Karen heritage and from Horn of Africa countries, met local police and Wyndham City Council representatives last Tuesday as part of World Refugee Day.
Local refugee leaders requested the information session to build better relationships and understanding between the two groups.
Sen Const Dove said the meeting was a good first step.
“We know these things are not forgotten overnight and we acknowledge the trauma and pain some of them are still suffering,” he said.
Werribee Police Inspector Shane Dowling said the exercise was a two-way learning process.
“It’s important we learn about their cultures so we can understand why they do certain things, and they learn what’s acceptable and allowed in our culture,” he said.
After touring Werribee police station, the group was taken by bus to the Victoria Police Academy to hear why people choose police work as a profession.
Sen Const Dove said the next step would be to encourage refugees to become officers themselves.
The idea had worked well with the Vietnamese community, because a few of its members have now joined the police, he said.
However, it would likely take several more years before the police had any Horn of Africa or Karen officers, he said.
“The language barrier is a big problem, and culturally, many of them still feel they are going against their people if they join the police,” he said.
“Refugees need to know we are much different than the police they’ve had experiences with.”
