Call to 'cut red tape' on refugee adoptions

Former Sierra Leone refugee Sahr Andrews has urged the federal government to 'cut red tape' on refugee adoptions from war-torn African countries.

Mr Andrews, who arrived in Tasmania with his wife four years ago, expressed his grief for the thousands of Africans, including his two daughters, stuck in over-crowded and under-resourced refugee camps.

At a Community Cabinet meeting in Launceston last week, he questioned Prime Minister Julia Gillard on what the federal government was doing to "help bring family members left back in refugee camps".

After the ten-year Sierra Leone civil war, he says hundreds and thousands of children in the country are growing up without their parents and are lacking adequate care.

In an interview with SBS News Radio, Mr Andrews shares his own heartbreak over his two young children, still in a refugee camp in Africa and his work for the Tasmania-based Orphan and Widow Care initiative in Africa.

Listen: Call to 'cut red tape' on refugee adoptions

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