REBECCA Lim loves to travel, but idling away time on a sun-drenched beach isn’t on the itinerary.
In the past year the community worker and migration agent managed three overseas trips and all involved a humanitarian agenda.
As the daughter of a Singaporean Chinese father and an Irish Australian mother Rebecca was born in Australia and returned to Singapore as a toddler.
“I left Australia when I was a year old and grew up in Singapore, so up until my 20s I had dual citizenship,” Rebecca (pictured) said.
She was educated at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus in Singapore and her first experience of refugees came in her late teens.
“It was my second job,” she said.
“I was a clerk in an agency called the United States Refugee Agency based in Singapore.
“I was 19 and after a year of doing administration I asked if I could go to the refugee camps with the foreign workers so I got a chance to go with the workers to the refugee camp in Indonesia on a two-weeks-on-two-weeks-off rotation.”
Rebecca said the agency was responsible for assessing Indo-Chinese refugees for resettlement into five countries – the USA, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia.
She spent a year in the job but such work was put on hold for the sake of marriage, children and, later, a move to Australia.
During the ensuing years Rebecca’s Catholic faith and the Catholic community – particularly the welcome of Holy Spirit Parish, New Farm – helped sustain her through some challenging times.
“I get very emotional when I talk about this,” she said of the unconditional welcome she received from the Holy Spirit community.
“I’m very grateful for the Catholic Church and the Catholic school.
“I was a single mother when my children were very young (three and five) and the Catholic school helped me through that in terms of fee reduction, emotional support and all that sort of thing so in return I have given a lot back to Catholic schools.”
Rebecca is a “world citizen” and a spiritual person who lives a full life of “giving back”.
At 32, she returned to study and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Justice Administration followed by a masters of Social Science.
“I went to work with the Red Cross in Brisbane in 2001 and I was able to get back into refugee work. They had the settlement program (and) I was settlement officer,” she said.
In 2002, Rebecca applied for the graduate program with the Department of Immigration and spent the next six years working there.
During that time she also completed a Graduate Certificate in Migration Law.
She rose quickly within the department, reaching a level where the next career step would mean relocating to Canberra.
“I didn’t want to relocate to Canberra so resigned and became a migration agent,” she said.
“I had a special set of skills and I could actually help people with visas.”
Since leaving the department, Rebecca’s private refugee work has resulted in eight deployments to detention centres as a migration agent.
“I have been to Christmas Island once; Darwin three times; Scherger, near Weipa (Queensland) three times and I’ve been to Leonora in Western Australia once,” she said.
“My job would involve helping asylum seekers with a protection claim, so you would do 20 forms and take a long statement about why they left (their country) and why they can’t return.”
Through the same work she is hoping to be invited to join a deployment trip to Nauru later this year.
Rebecca had known about the Mercy Family Services-sponsored Romero Centre for many years but as an immigration officer couldn’t volunteer as it was seen as a conflict of interest.
“I decided to check Romero out again about 18 months ago and came and met Faiza (El-Higzi, Romero’s multicultural advocacy and community development manager) and offered my services as a migration agent to do pro bono work (in support of refugees and asylum seekers).”
Rebecca ran pro bono migration advice clinics last year, and found there was a strong demand for her services.
“Then Faiza asked me if I’d come on board as a part-time worker so I did and now my role has evolved and I am currently full-time.”
Despite the full-time role Rebecca still manages to find the time to do “visa work outside of the Romero centre” to stay in touch with legislation and policy.
“Then I can understand why decisions are made the way they are,” she said.
Her job at the centre involves managing a large volunteer program and community education.
“We have about 200 on our books but probably only 80 are fairly active, some are inactive, some are resting, (and) some have moved interstate so it is a very fluid and dynamic register,” she said.
Her job also entails educating the wider community about migration, refugees and asylum seekers.
“People think we are being over-run by boat people. I hate calling them boat people; they are people who arrive by boat and that’s not true (that we are being over-run),” she said.
“I know of other countries who receive a lot more people but we certainly have capacity.
“I think the average Australian … just doesn’t understand the issues.
“I think even the migrant community has lack of understanding.”
Rebecca said Australians and those who had moved here were lucky to be able to practise their freedom.
“We are lucky that you can go to the Queen Street Mall and say something about Tony Abbott or Julia Gillard and not be rounded up and tortured,” she said.
She said Australians’ lack of understanding also extended to their perception of queue-jumping.
“There is no queue overseas. There is no processing.
“If there was proper processing people would not undertake that dangerous journey.”
Rebecca believes political propaganda and commercial media are fuelling misunderstandings and she would like to see the Church do more to help dispel divisive myths.
Brisbane Catholic Education gets a tick for approaching her to give their leadership a presentation on the issues and facts.
“That’s a positive step and I’m happy to do that for anyone,” Rebecca said.
She is realistic about what she as an individual can and can’t do.
“I can do little steps (but) I can’t change the world,” she said.
Some of those little steps, however, have a big impact.
Last year she visited three countries as part of her own personal aid work.
“I try to collect resources from within my network and I go to the Aljazeera website and I see what’s happening around the world and I pick a very grassroots organisation (to help),” Rebecca said.
One of her trips was to Mumbai, in India, to visit six girls rescued from being trafficked.
“Their mothers are sex workers in the slums so some of the women have given their daughters up voluntarily,” she said.
“Some have been taken away from them and this NGO (non-government organisation) basically looks after the girls from cradle to the grave.”
Another trip was to Bangkok, Thailand, to visit the Good Shepherd Sisters.
“They have a Fatima shop and some programs for women and babies and mothers so I brought them some financial help,” Rebecca said.
“I tend to ask my richer clients for support for my private work, I ask for $500 or $1000 and they know the work I do and I tell them where the money is going.”
Rebecca also visited a shelter in Ching Mai, in Thailand.
“It’s run by a Thai gentleman who is married to an Australian and I think they have about 20 girls so I bought some books for them and I think we donated about $300 which renovated their kitchen,” she said.
So what does the future hold for the 52-year-old?
It will be much more of the same if Rebecca has her way.
“I think I’d like to be doing this for a long time yet,” she said.
“I have a very good friend who works in child protection in Burma and I would like to go there later this year.
“Each time I go somewhere I will take three or four hundred dollars with me (to donate).”
Rebecca’s grandson will turn 10 next year and she laughs when she says she hopes his parents will allow him to travel with her at times to be exposed to children from other cultures. “I love to travel,” Rebecca said, “so I just find a reason.”
