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The two incidents follow the recent relocation of an Elizabeth family by the Australian Refugee Association and Anglicare, in the wake of similar threats.

Ms Dor said she was shocked to be confronted by racism in Australia.

“Australians are educated people she thought there would be no discrimination against her,'’ Ms Riiny translated.

“Because she received the letter she is afraid to leave the children alone here.

“(She says) these white people, they don’t fake it when they say they’ll kill you.

“In Australia they say things like that they mean it. That is her fear.'’

Ms Dor fled Uganda with her six children in 2005 and initially lived in Fulham.

The family moved to Paradise this month because a larger home was available.

Hectorville Catholic Church new arrivals support group member Gerald Hinton was helping the Dor family move in when
Ms Dor’s 19-year-old son Riiny Ngot found the letter.

“It’s completely un-Australian as far as I’m concerned,'’ Mr Hinton said.

“We need to shame people that this shouldn’t go on.'’

Mr Hinton reported the incident to Holden Hill Police.

The second refugee to receive the letter single mother of seven Abuk Bol Nyang was unavailable for comment this week because of translation difficulties.

However Mr Hinton, who also helped the Nyang family with their move, said she was equally shaken and shared the same fears as Ms Dor.

The Frederic Ozanam Housing Association, in conjunction with St Vincent de Paul, provided the houses for the two families.

Association executive officer Tony Roach was shocked to hear they had received threatening letters in their new homes.

“I’m extremely disappointed we have housed seven refugee families in Adelaide in different suburbs,'’ he said.

“They have been exemplary tenants and this is the first time anything like this has happened.'’

Campbelltown Mayor Simon Brewer was appalled by the letters and said the council welcomed people from all backgrounds.

“We don’t care who, where, what religion, what colour and hope that as people get to know them and they settle into the community this sort of fear factor or knee-jerk reaction stops,'’ he said.

“It must be terrible for them to come here expecting a wonderful, free, tolerant country and then get this.'’

Neighbors of the two families on Harris St said they could not believe such racist behaviour was taking place on their street.

“I’m really shocked. I thought this was a really nice street,'’ Lorraine Parker said.

“People always brag about Australia being multicultural, and you have some small faction that react that way.'’

Across the street Neil Kavalick labelled it “absolutely shocking'’.

“Everybody’s got the right to live,'’ he said.

Australian Refugees Association assistant director Christine Loveday said threatening letters were received by new migrants “only very rarely'’ but said the association received some threats.

“We do get some nasty messages here too sometimes,'’ she said.

“But generally the community is very nice to them and very welcoming.'’

Ms Loveday said the number of new arrivals had doubled in the past 10 years, with 1600 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers moving to SA annually.

Police did not respond before presstime.

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Students in Years 11 and 12 at five schools across Adelaide raised their concerns as part of a Sunday Mail special report on the opinions of South Australia’s youth.

The students, from different cultural and social backgrounds, spoke honestly on a wide range of issues including climate change, drugs, their safety and common stereotypes applied to young people.

Wilderness School Year 12 student Stacey Braithwaite, 17, said Australia’s reputation as a multicultural society belied the fact that racism still existed, even if in mild forms.

“Because we are in Australia people have the mindset that we don’t judge people . . . that we’re accepting . . . but really we need to have a look at that because obviously there are still people that say racial comments,” she said.

“It does happen but we don’t actually recognise it as a big problem.”

Stacey said racism was not a problem at her school where she had friends from varying cultural backgrounds.

However, she often heard members of the public using derogatory names towards people of certain cultures.

“It’s just become accepted to pay someone out like that,” she said.

“We don’t think anything of it because we hear it all the time.”

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, people had been “taught” by the media to be wary of people of certain ethnicities, Stacey said. Henley High School Year 12 student Franchesca Fajardo, 17, agreed terrorism had “brought up racism”.

“You see someone that looks suspicious and you think they’re a terrorist, it’s kind of awful how people have generalised those people,” she said.

Marryatville High School student Warwick Ambrose, 18, said political correctness often stopped people from raising issues to do with ethnicity for fear of being “targeted as a racist”.

“There’s some kind of . . . political correctness which means people don’t always think about things (to do with race) because they are scared of being judged racist,” he said.

“There’s certainly a fair amount of people not being totally comfortable talking about it.”

Multicultural Communities Council of SA executive director Vivien Hope said racism was “certainly” still present in Australian society.

“There’s racism around everywhere,” she said.

“We all carry with us a certain amount of prejudice. I think these young people do feel it.”

She said most of the racism exhibited was “not overt, it’s certainly covert”.

“The insensitivity about their comments, sometimes people don’t think,” Ms Hope said.

“We need to get away from preconceived ideas and stereotypes in countering racism.

“To me that’s the worst kind . . . our assumptions.”

Ms Hope said Australia had “gone a long way” to eradicating racism but called on people to remain mindful of how they treated others.

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He was hearing increasingly disturbing reports from Islamic communities about how they were being poorly treated by the wider community.

SA Equal Opportunity Commissioner Linda Matthews said in the annual report that a “small minority are behaving in an unacceptable way” towards newly arrived Muslims.

“For generations, South Australian Muslims have been an integral part of our community,” she said.

“But in the last five years, the heightened global attention on Islam has seen local Muslims singled out for unfair treatment like never before.”

Roman Catholic Church Vicar-General Monsignor David Cappo, who also heads the State Government’s Social Exclusion Unit and is a member of the executive committee of Cabinet, told The Advertiser’s Rex Jory that racism was widespread among young Adelaide people.

“They are very harsh to Asian communities. Now the Muslims are going to get it as well,” he said.

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During each attack, the gang members asked for cash and mobile phones, before assaulting their victims.

Sources within the Indian community told The Advertiser several students - the same market the State Government was trying to lure to SA - were now planning to return to India in fear for their safety. They were too scared to walk alone at night, which posed a problem as many students relied on public transport.

“There seems to be a lot of racial tension in that area,” an Indian woman, who did not wish to be named, said.

“I always thought of Australia as the most wonderful country and I did my research before coming here. Now I feel so insecure.”

Mr Parakh said after he was bashed, his attackers told him to “get out of our country”.

“Most people here are good, but these people are spoiling the whole country,” he said.

About 250 members of the Indian community attended a meeting at Regency Park on Monday to address the issue.

A spokesman for SA police said officers were working with the Indian community to address the spate of attacks.

“Police have been working closely with residents in the Enfield and Clearview community in relation to some allegations of theft, robbery and assaults that have occurred over a period of time commencing around May this year,” the spokesman said.

“Police have responded to the information supplied by members of the community, as they do when any community group believe they have issues with local crime related matters. Police attended a community forum on Monday evening . . . to reassure the community that various initiatives are in place to address any fears that these residents may have had.

“Police will continue to work with the community and maintain a visible police presence, responding to community needs.”

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