Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has issued the first humanitarian visas to Palestinian families arriving in Australia after almost a year of pressure on the issue.
No maps, no GPS, no training: How 44 people survived being turned back in the Timor Sea. By Zach Hope and Amilia Rosa, SMH
A boatload of migrants allegedly turned back by the Australian Border Force without maps, navigational equipment or reasonable training ran aground on rocks on Rote Island, Indonesia. Another group beached a few kilometres away and had to be rescued by locals responding to pleas for help.
One man said they were so scared after being cut loose in the vast Timor Sea with only a 15-minute Border Force course in navigating, that they didn’t dare to touch anything but the steering wheel………..
Hamzah Hamitu, a fisherman from Kupang and veteran of these waters, was incredulous when he heard there was no crew on the boats to guide the migrants to Rote Island safely.
“They [the Australians] shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “The Timor Sea is a dangerous place. We have strong currents – they could have easily died.”
'Does he understand the difference?': Dutton criticised for international student remarks. SBS, By Jessica Bahr
Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary at the immigration department, described Dutton's comments as "nonsense".
"The boat arrival comparison is nonsense; boat arrivals come without a visa, all of these students came with a visa," Rizvi said.
"If he (Dutton) doesn't understand the difference between that, he shouldn't have been home affairs minister."
Behrouz Boochani confirmed as keynote speaker at Rural Australians for Refugees conference. By Jonathan Strauss, Green Left
Behrouz Boochani, Kurdish refugee, author and activist, will be the keynote speaker at the Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) national conference in Kyneton, Victoria, from October 11–13.
Boochani’s address on collective resistance and activism will set the framework for discussions.
Moz (Mostafa) Azimitabar will present his and Farhad Bandesh’s film, Freedom is Beautiful, on the evening of October 12.
Refugees could be the simple answer to Australia's skills shortage. By Edwina Guinan, SBS News
Australia has a serious skills shortage yet many qualified refugees still struggle to find appropriate jobs. A new project aims to change that, by offering positions to those facing barriers, such as limited local experience.
Refugees could be the simple answer to Australia's skills shortage. By Edwina Guinan, SBS News
Sukhdeep wants to see her mother while she is still alive – but Australia’s visa rules have left her in limbo. By Rafqa Touma, The Guardian
Sukhdeep Kaur with her husband Jaswinder Singh and daughter, Ravneet Garcha. Kaur cannot return to India to visit her mother, who is undergoing cancer treatment, without becoming unable to return.
“She is 75 years old, she is calling me every day to see her,” Kaur tells Guardian Australia. “She’s asking, ‘I want to see you while I am alive.’’ But, Kaur says, “I can’t leave to see her.” If she does, she won’t be able to return to Australia for three years.
That’s because Kaur is on a bridging visa. Kaur and her family have lived in Sunbury, in Melbourne’s north, since 2015.
She has been in limbo since then, unable to visit her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in seven years. Experts say her experience is shared by many migrants on bridging visas waiting for ministerial intervention applications to be considered.
‘It grows this anger within people’: how Australia treats those fleeing humanitarian disaster depends on where they came from – and when. By Rafqa Touma and Ben Doherty, The Guardian
Over the past three decades, Australia had issued at least 25 different visa types to assist people forced from their homes by humanitarian emergency, according to a policy paper from the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.
“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,” the policy brief reads.
“For some people escaping these conflicts, travel to Australia has been relatively easy; for others, impossible,” the brief, written by Prof Jane McAdam and Dr Regina Jefferies, says.
Immigration detention's epidemic levels of self-harm paint Australia as a 'brutal outlier' among peers. By David Estcourt, ABC News
From 2019-24 Home Affairs recorded a total of 2,670 incidents of self-harm or threatened self-harm, an average of 1.54 reported incidents every day.
To house a detainee in detention it cost the Australian government $428,542 per person, per year, over the 2020-21 financial year, compared to $54,798 in community detention.
‘Sneaky move’: Labor accused of trying to quietly curtail appeals from people seeking asylum. By Paul Karp, The Guardian
Labor has been accused of attempting to sneak through changes limiting the ability to seek merits review from immigration detention, overturning the effect of a recent high court decision.
UN Palestine vote: Australia shows it lacks a backbone. By Greg Barns and Paul Heywood-Smith, Pearls & Irritations
Yet when it came to voting yesterday on a UN Resolution advanced by Palestine to give effect to the International Court of Justice decision of 19 July, Australia abstained from voting for it, along with the UK, Canada and Germany. But our neighbour New Zealand voted for it, as did Ireland, Japan and France.
The Resolution states that Israel must put “an end to its unlawful policies and practices, including… repealing all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation, including those which discriminate against the Palestinian people”; “Allowing all Palestinians displaced during the occupation to return to their original place of residence”; and “Making reparation for the damage caused to all the natural and legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. ”
Asylum claims at six-year high as record numbers await decision. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
The list of people in limbo is growing by about 1000 a month, creating a backdoor for people on temporary visas who run out of options, including students, to keep working in Australia by applying for asylum and entering the drawn-out appeal process.
It means those found to be genuine refugees are also forced to wait years for security.
Asylum claims at six-year high as record numbers await decision. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
Photographer Barat Ali Batoor captures the truths of displaced refugees. By Behrouz Boochani (writer and former refugee), The Saturday Paper.
Hazara photographer Barat Ali Batoor gives a distinctive perspective on the lives of refugees and the realities that face his people.
Australia's population reaches 27 million with growth largely driven by overseas migration. By Ahmed Yussuf, The Guardian
Australian National University demographer Liz Allen said hitting the 27 million population milestone was a moment to consider the challenges and opportunities facing the country in the future.
Dr Allen said it could affect social cohesion and potentially drive harmful rhetoric around migration when Australia's population change was problematised.
"If Australia didn't have immigration, we would not have the socio economic good standing that we have. Immigration keeps Australia economically and socially afloat," she said.
Dutton suggests apology for calling Lebanese-Muslim migration a ‘mistake’ made to ‘senior person’ in community. By Paul Karp & Andrew Messenger, The Guardian
In November 2016 Dutton, then the immigration minister, told Sky News’s Andrew Bolt that “the reality is that Malcolm Fraser did make mistakes in bringing some people in the 1970s and we’re seeing that today”.
Dutton then doubled down in question time, claiming Fraser should not have let people of “Lebanese-Muslim” background into Australia by citing as evidence a small cohort of individuals who have been charged with terrorism offences.
In 2023, when asked by Annabel Crabb on the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet if it was a racist remark, Dutton replied: “You know they’re comments that I shouldn’t have made. I’ve apologised for that.”
Five leaders of Australia’s Lebanese Muslim community interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald reportedly said they have no recollection of Dutton making that apology.
Malaysia’s Promised Immigration Reform Fails Children. By Bryony Lau Deputy Asia Director Human Rights Watch
One year ago, the Malaysian government launched Baitul Mahabbah, an initiative to move children ages 10 and younger from regular immigration detention centers, known as depots, and place them in dedicated centers for children. There are now 170 children – some unaccompanied – in Baitul Mahabbah centers, facilities that do not provide a genuine alternative to detention.
Australian citizenship's 75th anniversary: Here's where our newest citizens are from. By Ruchika Talwar, SBS News
Out of 115,300 migrants who became Australian citizens by conferral up to 31 August this year, more than 15,000 — 13.51 per cent of the total number — were born in India.
Migrants born in New Zealand have a slender lead over them, with just over 16,000 born in Australia's neighbouring country, making 13.97 per cent of the total number of foreign nationals to acquire citizenship.
Bibi was given $4 a day to survive. Now that allowance has been cut to zero. By Zach Hope and Karuni Rompies, SMH
The United Nations has decided to pull funding from the most desperate refugees stuck in Indonesia, including people with chronic illnesses and children without parents, because it is running out of money and prioritising other global crises.
This rule puts Border Force workers above the law – and it was just quietly extended. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
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’".