The Buderim-based Buddies Refugee Support Group is again calling for hosts for the Learn English Holiday program, which pairs refugees and Sunshine Coast residents for a week-long exchange. Fergus Fitzgerald of Buddies said he considered the exchange one of the organisation's flagship programs due to its immense benefits to both parties. "For the asylum seekers and refugees, sometimes this is the first time they've stayed in a normal family setting since they've fled their home,” he said.

Refugees can be an economic boost, not burden, to the communities that host them, a new study by the United Nations concludes. The benefit is bigger if refugees are given cash stipends instead of food rations, according to a joint project by the World Food Programme and researchers at the University of California Davis. The team studied Congolese refugees living in three different camps in Rwanda.

The team, comprised of ten refugee athletes from Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will compete in the Rio 2016 Olympics and march in the Opening Ceremony tomorrow. The International Olympic Committee is funding the team to draw attention to the global refugee crisis. UNHCR released a 90-second film about the refugee athletes today, which is hosted on the organisation’s YouTube page.