WE, CHINESE CHRISTIANS OF THE CHURCH OF ALMIGHTY GOD REQUEST AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT TO PAY MORE ATTENTION ON OUR PROTECTION CLAIMS IN AUSTRALIA
We are Christians of The Church of Almighty God (CAG) seeking protection in Australia. Group of us arrived to Australia in hoping to seek protection but our cases have been unsuccessful due to lack of understanding about our faith and religion. Many of us are struggling to find lawyers and unable to find proper way of settling in Australia.
The Chinese Communist government uses its official media to package China as a country with an image of “rapid economic development and a marked increase in its international status,” and only shows its seemingly glamorous appearance to the world, but secretly adopts all kinds of methods to hide the deplorable human rights situation of China.
In fact, since it took power, the Chinese Communist Party has bloodily suppressed religious beliefs by hook or by crook, doing its utmost to ban house churches. Especially the persecution on the CAG is even more severe. Since being established in 1991, the CAG has continued to endure brutal repression and persecution of the Chinese Communist government.
● In 1995, the CCP issued the documents to label The Church of Almighty God, the Local Church etc. totally 14 religious groups as “cults,” and brutally suppressed the CAG in the name of “combating cults.”
● According to rough statistics, in just the two short years between 2011 and 2013, the number of Christians of the CAG illegally arrested, detained and sentenced by the Communist Party reached 380,380 people, of which 43,640 people were subjected to various methods of torture at the hands of kangaroo courts, including 13 people who were persecuted to death. As of now, there are already 44 well-documented cases of Christians of the CAG killed by the Communist Party.
● Based on incomplete statistics from the start of the 2017 to September 30 of the same year, at least 3,362 Christians of the CAG were subjected to the persecution of the Communist Party in Mainland China’s 32 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
● Because the CCP has always suppressed religious beliefs, many Christians from the CAG are forced to flee from home, agonizing over their shattered family and homelessness.
● The denial of religious freedom in China and the case of The Church of Almighty God exposed at the 37th session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations http://hrwf.eu/china-the-persecution-of-the-church-of-almighty-god-raised-in-a-side-event-at-the-un/
● Nowadays, there are still many Christians of the CAG suffer from inhumane abuse in Chinese prisons, and the number of church members who were persecuted to death continues to grow.
As the repression of the CAG by the CCP continues to escalate, some Christians from the CAG uprooted themselves and fled to the countries overseas, a part of whom arrived Australia seeking asylum. We are law-abiding and peace-loving, and want to make a contribution to society. We didn’t know much about the local law when we first arrived, and legal aid provided by some local non-profit organizations is limited, so the majority applied for our protection visas without professional immigration lawyers’ help, and some of whom were refused by the DIBP, waiting for the hearing. Due to the coming hearing and lack of legal assistance, our situation will become more worrying: Once our applications for protection visas are refused, we will be faced with repatriation, which is tantamount to sending us to our death.
We hope that Australian people can pay more attention to the life of Christians of the CAG, call on for the Christians seeking asylum and help us assimilate into the local, so that we can stay here to continue our beliefs.
Our web page
The denial of religious freedom in China
CHURCH OF ALMIGHTY GOD COUPLE ARRESTED, DRUGGED AND TORTURED
CHINA: Four members of the Church of Almighty God arrested and tortured in Huaiyang County
Report: Persecution of the Church of Almighty God in China
Source: RISE: Refugees, Survivors and Ex-detainees
Message from rise members from the Chinese community who are seeking protection in Australia