AFGHAN residents heard about police plans to infiltrate people-smuggling gangs and the dangers of relying on their children's interpreting skills too much, at a dinner last week.
Mosa Gherjestani, the president of the Hazara Council of Australia president said the goal of the Law and the Community evening on Friday night was to make Hazara people and other Afghans feel more comfortable about communicating with police.
"Most Hazara people and particularly recent refugees feel very uncomfortable about speaking to the police, because they're not used to trusting police officers," Mr Gherjestani said.
"The focus of the night was education and preventing young people from getting involved in criminal activities and going down the wrong path.
"It was also important to assure locals that people smugglers are being investigated and authorities are making some ground in the area."
Sergeant Mark Goode from the Australian Federal Police spoke about investigations and said authorities needed the help of local Afghans.
Javier Sampedro, deputy principal at Holroyd High School, spoke about the importance of parents retaining control of family affairs.
He said many parents did not speak English well and asked their children to translate. They ended up giving children too much power in the decision-making process. Mr Sampedro said parents should consider hiring translators to avoid this problem.