Members from within Australia's Assyrian community have criticised the federal government, saying it's taking too long to resettle refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Only a handful of families of the 12,000 people Australia committed to taking late last year has actually arrived.
Assyrians are a Christian minority group present in Iraq and Syria, as well as other surrounding countries, that has been targetted by forces of the so-called Islamic State.
Members of Sydney's Assyrian community have met with local police in Sydney, during a gathering called "Coffee with a cop".
During the catch up they share stories of relatives who are still displaced overseas, including in refugee camps.
Evlin Berendro, an Assyrian Iraqi woman, arrived in Australia ten years ago.
She says she is concerned about her son, who fled Islamic State advances in Iraq and is currently in Jordan.
(Translated)"A mum obviously misses her children and wishes for all of them to be around her. So I pray for my children to be here so our family can be whole."
Last year Australia said it would resettle 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq over a period of 18 months.
But only a small number has arrived since December.
Carman Lazar is from the support group known as the Assyrian Resource Centre, in Sydney.
Ms Lazar says she has helped process almost 7,000 visa applications for community members' relatives from Iraq and Syria in the past year.
And she says she remains in the dark about the fate of those families.
"I'm annoyed and I'm upset. The community is frustrated and I'm frustrated, because getting 500, 600 emails a day and having over 150 people visiting me each day, you know it's a bit (of)frustrations. Why am I frustrated? Because I have no answer for them."
Karim Saddek - who arrived in Australia as a refugee - says he's also waiting for a response to visa applications lodged for his family members more than a year ago.
(Translated)"We've heard nothing, we have heard absolute nothing. You know, we're scared for our families and their children. There is no life left there for them, and they have no money. That's the problem."
A spokesman for the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has told SBS, the processing of refugees from Syria and Iraq will not be rushed.
He says it will take time to identify those most in need and then carry out the appropriate checks before they come to Australia.
The New South Wales Co-ordinator General for Refugee Resettlement is Professor Peter Shergold.
He says the state is preparing for a significant refugee intake.
"What we've got to make sure is through education, through adult migrant English, through work experience, through internships, through jobs, that people are really integrated into the labour migrant. We can help refugees who come here do what they want to do, which is take control of their own lives, be self reliant, get educated, get jobs, build businesses."
Carmen Lazar is pleading with the federal government to speed up refugee assessments.
"I plead the Government, on behalf of my community, to please lend a hand to these vulnerable people."
