Australian Border Force workers won’t have to take care of asylum seekers’ health and safety during boat interceptions under a fresh exemption to workplace laws, which has been granted by the government despite concerns from parliament’s Labor-led human rights committee.
Meet the young people who could outlive their own country. By Elfy Scott, SBS News
The impacts of climate change are imminent in Tuvalu. Its low-lying archipelago of six coral atolls and three reef islands is located in the South Pacific, spanning around 25 square kilometres and home to around 11,000 people.
Researchers predict that Tuvalu will be nearly fully submerged by the end of the century.
In 2021, Tuvalu's then foreign minister Simon Kofe famously addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26, saying the island nation was "sinking" and climate mobility had to become a priority — all whilst standing knee-deep in the ocean at a lectern.
Meet the young people who could outlive their own country. By Elfy Scott, SBS News
‘All my dreams shattered’: asylum seekers barred from Australian universities. By Denham Sadler, The Saturday Paper.
A flaw in Australia’s refugee laws means asylum seekers in the country on so-called fast-track visas are barred from universities or charged the same fees as international students.
It was not until he started Year 12 that Abishek Selvakumar discovered he would not be able to go to university.
With his friends beginning to discuss potential uni offers, Selvakumar researched the temporary visa he and his mother had been on for more than a decade and found it barred him from higher education.
Selvakumar arrived in Australia with his mother in 2013 after fleeing Sri Lanka when he was seven years old. They were subject to the then Coalition government’s so-called fast-track process and have been on temporary bridging visas ever since.
Though he wants to study construction management at university and has been in Australia for more than a decade, the visa conditions prevent Selvakumar from attending tertiary education.
“I feel excluded from all my other peers,” Selvakumar tells The Saturday Paper.
“I honestly gave up on my exams because I didn’t see the point. I was really looking forward to it. I was excited about that and getting to learn the subject I was passionate about, but I couldn’t do it.”
With Year 12 exams and university offerings fast approaching for 2024, there are many young people in similar positions who cannot pursue higher education because their parents are refugees and are on bridging visas.
Under these visas, they are either counted as international students and must pay extremely high fees or they are not allowed to study at all.
Harini Rathnakumar also did not realise her visa status made her different to her classmates until she received a university offer for a biomedical science degree that required her to pay international student fees of nearly $100,000.
Rathnakumar arrived in Australia in 2013 when she was 10 years old, leaving behind her two siblings and mother in a refugee camp in India after they had fled Sri Lanka in 2006.
“Ever since we came here, we’ve been on a bridging visa, but I didn’t know the full extent of what that meant until Year 12,” she tells The Saturday Paper. “I thought I was going to school like any other kid.”
She started the degree in 2020, self-funding her studies with help from her father and partner. After two-and-a-half years, with Rathnakumar a year behind in payments, the university disenrolled her in 2023, four months before she was set to complete her studies.
“All my dreams shattered,” Rathnakumar says. “I didn’t know what to do with my life. It’s a very hard situation watching my friends I studied with go on to finish their degrees, get better jobs and chase their dreams, while I’m stuck in this state of limbo.
“Every single day that goes by, all I think about is how different my life could be if I had a permanent visa.”
According to the latest figures from the Department of Home Affairs, there are a little more than 10,000 people in Australia on bridging visas who arrived in the country by boat. This includes just under 3000 applications in process; a little more than 7000 applications have been refused, cancelled or expired.
The fast-track program, which saw about 32,000 people processed, stripped asylum seekers of rights to appear at the application hearing and to appeal against the decision on their visas. The Albanese government abolished the fast-track system with effect from July 1 this year, having stated in its national platform that the scheme did “not provide a fair, thorough and robust assessment process”.
For those still on temporary visas in Australia, it means they are living in limbo, with few rights in terms of education, healthcare and work, and no certainty on whether they will be able to remain in Australia.
“They’ve been waiting in this limbo for a decade, and at any time you could be sent back to a country where you feel like you’ll be in harm’s way,” says Adama Kamara, the deputy chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia.
“Ever since we came here, we’ve been on a bridging visa, but I didn’t know the full extent of what that meant until Year 12. I thought I was going to school like any other kid.”
“It’s really about wasted opportunities and talent. You’ve got people who have been in the country for a decade and they have roots here. They’ve gone through the schooling system and have created friendships. They could be contributing to society.”
Last year, the federal government announced those caught up in the fast-track process and on temporary visas would be able to apply for permanent residency. However, it will be upholding the rejections made under the fast-track process, despite acknowledging its flaws.
“The government is focused on providing those who engage Australia’s protection obligations and who have been residing in Australia for long periods of time a chance to continue their lives in Australia with certainty and security,” a Home Affairs spokesperson said.
“People who do not engage protection obligations, who are not awaiting a merits or judicial review outcome, and who have exhausted all avenues to remain in Australia, are expected to depart Australia voluntarily and may be provided assistance to depart.”
That means no pathway to permanent residency or reviews have been offered to those impacted by the failed fast-track scheme. These are the individuals now living in limbo on restrictive visas and effectively barred from going to university.
According to Home Affairs, nearly a third of all the people in Australia on bridging visa E are from Sri Lanka, equating to 3000 people as of the end of June.
“Before the fast-track, the majority of people from those countries were accepted, but with this unfair system they were rejected,” says Kalyani Inpakumar, the New South Wales coordinator at the Tamil Refugee Council. “It has impacted them very badly.
“There were no interviews. Sometimes only certain documents could be submitted and there was no appeals process.”
Due to this system, many children who arrived in Australia a decade ago are not able to pursue higher education studies.
“You’d think a country like Australia would encourage children to go ahead and study if that’s what they want to do, but they’re not allowed,” Inpakumar says.
“In Year 12 they have a cohort of classmates going on to study and to work and follow their aspirations. These children are not allowed to do that. They consider themselves to be Australians, they’ve been here since they were 10 or younger and they’ve gone through the school system, but they’re not allowed to go to university.”
Advocates also argue that the situation in Sri Lanka for Tamils has deteriorated further over the past decade, and many decisions under the fast-track process should be reconsidered. A government spokesperson said final determinations made through this process would remain, and those with new protection claims had to apply for ministerial intervention.
Sowriya Vishmuvarman arrived in Australia with her mother and brother after fleeing Sri Lanka in 2012. They have also been on temporary bridging visas ever since.
Vishmuvarman completed her HSC last year and received an offer to study nursing at Western Sydney University. She was also accepted into a three-month intensive course leading into a bachelor of psychology at Macquarie University. She opted for the psychology course and began studying as an international student paying full fees.
Three weeks into the course, Vishmuvarman received a call from a Department of Home Affairs official who said her visa conditions did not allow her to study at all.
“I felt happy in those three weeks I was going to university,” Vishmuvarman tells The Saturday Paper. “I felt safe and it was comfortable for me to go there every day.
“After immigration called me, I didn’t know what to do. It felt like my whole world had shattered. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I didn’t want to go outside.”
For more than a month, Vishmuvarman and her mother have attended a 24/7 protest outside the Sydney office of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, calling for better support and a pathway to residency for those affected by the fast-track process.
“We go to the protests every day – we’re sitting there from morning to evening hoping there’s some sort of light at the end,” she says.
For many of the children of refugees, the prospect of university and finding a job also provided the opportunity to give back to their parents, who risked everything to find them safety in Australia.
Abishek Selvakumar says his mother brought him up and this was meant to be an opportunity to thank her. “I finally thought it was my time to do something for her and for myself, but I couldn’t,” he says. “She struggled so much trying to raise me and I finally thought I would have a better life for her and continue studying to build a better life.”
The 24/7 protest has been going for more than 40 days and has spread beyond Melbourne and Sydney to other locations including Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.
“They’ve waited for 14 years already, we can’t waste another year,” Inpakumar says. “They should be able to go to university while the government processes their permanent pathway. For young children, wasting one year is a long time.”
For Vishmuvarman and other children of asylum seekers on temporary visas, the limbo continues.
“Education is really important, especially in Australia and especially without permanent residency,” she says. “If we have a degree or certificate in hand, we can look forward to something in the future. That’s been taken away.”
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on September 14, 2024 as "‘All my dreams shattered’".
‘All my dreams shattered’: asylum seekers barred from Australian universities. By Denham Sadler, The Saturday Paper.
Tuvaluans prepare for life in Australia as rising tides swallow their country. By Coco Veldkamp, ABC News
Kuata Taumaheke has her hopes set on a new beginning in Australia.
"It's a sad situation because we Tuvaluans contribute less to the cause of climate change but we are the ones suffering," she says.
After missing out in a recent random ballot for permanent residency via Australia's new Pacific Engagement Visa, she's preparing to try her luck with another migration pathway.
The Falepili Union, an agreement letting Tuvaluans escape the impacts of climate change and move to Australia, came into effect last month.The program is expected to start in nine months and will allow up to 280 people to migrate each year through a random ballot.
New policy brief by Jane McAdam AO and Regina Jefferies of the Kaldor Centre’s Evacuations Research Hub
When crises threaten lives, the Australian government often steps up – but not always in a predictable, efficient, equitable and effective way, if responses to Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza are anything to go by. For some people escaping these conflicts, travel to Australia has been relatively easy; for others, impossible. Some people who reach Australia have rights to work, study, healthcare and support, while others are barely surviving.
Over time, Australia has issued at least 25 different visa types to assist people in humanitarian emergencies. A new Kaldor Centre policy brief outlines them all and argues that it does not need to be this complicated.
Instead, ‘Ensuring Protection in Humanitarian Emergencies: A framework for Australia’ recommends that the Australian government should streamline its humanitarian crisis response with a new, dedicated emergency visa.
The policy brief is authored by Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO and Dr Regina Jefferies of the Evacuations Research Hub at the Kaldor Centre.
It proposes the new emergency visa as part of a holistic, more equitable and agile response to crises. Encompassing both physical and legal protection, the broader emergency response framework proposed could be activated when sudden or large-scale crises arise around the world, and tailored to the specific context. The framework is designed with Australia in mind, but it could also be used as a model for other countries.
The policy brief sets out what an emergency visa should look like – including who should be eligible for the visa, what rights it would provide, and how long it should last. The policy brief’s broader recommendations detail what the humanitarian emergency framework needs in order to achieve a more predictable, equitable, streamlined and efficient outcome – for all concerned.
Landmark settlements for children detained in Nauru. By Farid Farid, The Canberra Times
"The cases reinforce the legal principle that the commonwealth has a duty of care to asylum seekers offshore and now that the Medevac law has been repealed, this principle is their only enforceable protection," Ms Hearne explained.
The cases date back to 2018 when NJP and other advocates asked the court to order the Morrison government to transfer critically ill children to Australia to receive appropriate medical care.
Landmark settlements for children detained in Nauru. By Farid Farid, The Canberra Times
Australia’s construction industry needs more hands on deck – so why is it ignoring skilled migrant women? By Suhair Alkilani & Martin Loosemore, The Conversation
Women skilled in the trades needed face special barriers. This might be expected from an industry in which (in New South Wales at least) around half the employers have a workforce that is nearly all male and one-third employ no women at all.
Our survey of 70 Australian subcontractors found they saw significant safety, productivity and cost risks in employing migrants and refugees and groups including disengaged youth, people with a disability, ex-offenders, women and Indigenous workers.
In many cases, these perceived risks did not align with actual risks.
Ex-Manus Island detainees stranded in PNG threatened with eviction over unpaid rent. By Paul Karp & Ben Doherty, The Guardian
Asylum seekers stranded in Papua New Guinea have been threatened with eviction if an alleged $110,000 rental arrears debt is not paid, leading to urgent calls for the Australian government to intervene to prevent them becoming “homeless”.
The families are among about 70 people who sought asylum in Australia but remain in PNG, previously detained at Australia’s detention centre on Manus Island before it was ruled unlawful by PNG’s supreme court in 2016.
Record numbers of temporary graduates in immigration limbo. By Abul Rizvi, Pearls & Irritations
Temporary graduate visas are for overseas students who complete their study and wish to undertake work in Australia, often as a pathway to permanent residence. These visas work best when the bulk of temporary graduates seeking permanent residence are able to secure skilled work and eventually a permanent residence employer sponsored (or other) permanent visa.
Record numbers of temporary graduates in immigration limbo. By Abul Rizvi, Pearls & Irritations
Pope takes refugee concerns on the road. By Robin Osborne, P&I
Nowadays, PNG is better known for its colourful dance troupes, rugby league players and World War II sites, but back in the early 1980s it was in the headlines for a different reason, the influx of thousands of Melanesian people fleeing Indonesian rule in the neighbouring province of West Papua, then known as Irian Jaya.
The great bulk of those refugees, estimated to number up to 10,000, are still in PNG today, spread out along the north-south border, living in camps that have become villages, fearful of returning to Indonesia where conflict between the military and local resistance continues to play out. Like the PNG population, they are almost universally Christian…..
Jason Siwat, director of the refugee program for the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and the Solomon Islands, says, ‘The West Papuans have conflict with local landowners, so they can’t farm and consequently face food insecurity. They’re unable to pay school fees, and even suffer untreated snake bites when they move about to gather firewood or hunt for food.”
These people live far away and out of sight of the media. The latter condition also applies to dozens more West Papuans who have made it to PNG’s capital of Port Moresby where Siwat’s team has gone house to house, or more accurately shanty to shanty, documenting conditions and needs, including hygiene and nutrition shortcomings, and lack of educational and work opportunities.
Pope takes refugee concerns on the road. By Robin Osborne, P&I
Unsuccessful asylum seekers now exceed those at primary and AAT stages. By Abul Rizvi, P&I
The more rapid processing of asylum seekers at the primary and AAT levels, at an average monthly refusal rate of around 90% over the past six months, has meant that the number of asylum seekers refused at both levels and not departed has increased at around 1,400 per month.
Unsuccessful asylum seekers now exceed those at primary and AAT stages. By Abul Rizvi, P&I
When it comes to helping refugees settle in Australia, Reclink's got game. By Phoebe Deas, SBS News
They say sport has the power to unite the world, and for one community organisation that certainly rings true. 'Reclink' is helping refugees who have recently moved to Australia find their feet in a new country.
When it comes to helping refugees settle in Australia, Reclink's got game. By Phoebe Deas, SBS News
Migration remains a hot-button issue. But Australia should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. By Nicki Hutley, The Guardian
If the problem we’re trying to solve is housing undersupply, then planning and tax policies, not migration, should be where the focus is.
'Deeply insensitive': Refugee advocates left reeling by Labor MP’s comments. By Christopher Tan, SBS
Among those protesting is a group of Perth-based Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who have staged a sit-in protest and vigil outside federal Labor MP Sam Lim’s office in Willetton.
Lim holds the seat of Tangney, which spans south Perth and has a strong Sri Lankan Tamil population: Tamil is spoken by 1.2 per cent of the electorate, which is four times higher than the WA state average and three times the national average.
The protest at Willetton took a turn on Monday afternoon when the first-time Labor MP and former police officer made an unscheduled appearance.
'Deeply insensitive': Refugee advocates left reeling by Labor MP’s comments. By Christopher Tan, SBS
A message from the new Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Law at UNSW, Daniel Ghezelbash
Our work is needed now more than ever, in Australia and internationally. Growing inequality, conflict, climate change and technological disruption are making the challenges of displacement even more complex. We are uniquely positioned to undertake the deep, long-term thinking and rigorous research required to address these emerging issues.
Gazans who arrived in Australia on visitor visas say seeking asylum is their only option as the war continues. By Maani Truu, ABC News
Saadou Khalaf was a successful dentist and university lecturer in Gaza. In Sydney, he's a shopkeeper, or meat factory worker, or a warehouse packer, or anything else he can pick up a casual shift doing.
"I say to myself: 'You are a professional and you have to continue to be a professional,'" he says. "Any work that is given to me, I try to do in a very proper way."
He is thankful to be allowed to work at all, after arriving with his family in March on a three-month visitor visa that did not allow him to earn money. Since applying for a permanent protection visa, his bridging visa allows him to work and access Medicare — but that's not the case for other Palestinians who were initially granted six or 12-month temporary visas.
Rise in Palestinian applications for onshore protection visas as pressure grows on Albanese government. By Paul Karp, The Guardian
The number of Palestinians applying onshore for protection has continued to grow, increasing pressure on the Albanese government over its decision to require them to come to Australia on visitor visas first.
More than four countries taking in Palestinians fleeing Gaza. By William Summers, AAP
AAP FACTCHECK – Claims are circulating on social media that Australia is one of only four countries that has taken refugees from Gaza.
This is false. More than four countries have approved visas for Palestinians since the renewed outbreak of war in the region in October 2023.
The exact number of nations that have offered visas to Palestinians is difficult to establish due to significant variations in approaches taken by individual countries.
However, immigration data and media reports show at least 10 countries other than Australia have offered a safe haven to people fleeing the region since October 2023.
More than four countries taking in Palestinians fleeing Gaza. By William Summers, AAP
Mani once sang of freedom in Afghanistan. Now, silenced, she’s desperate to escape. Will Australia help? By Shadi Khan Saif, The Guardian
In the final days of the Afghan republic – in defiance of a looming takeover by the Taliban – the Hazara journalist Mani sang revolutionary poems in public in Kabul about women, freedom and justice. Now she is on the run, waiting for the Australian government to grant her a humanitarian visa.
Crossbench MPs call on prime minister to make pathway for asylum seekers stuck in 'limbo' By Andi Yu, ABC
A group of 25 federal crossbench MPs have written a letter addressed to the prime minister and immigration minister urging them to allow asylum seekers stuck in visa limbo a pathway to permanency in Australia.
Their letter follows the tragic death of 23-year-old Tamil refugee Mano Yogalingam in Melbourne on Wednesday.