Refugees stuck in limbo for over a decade demand action
Following the protests in Logan, I spoke to an Iranian mother to hear more about her struggle in obtaining permanent visas for herself and her three children in Australia.
Upon his election into Parliament, Anthony Albanese inherited the unresolved status of thousands of asylum seekers and refugees whose claims for protection were rejected by the fast-track processing system created under the Abbott Government in 2014.
The system, which was meant to “fast-track” applications for refugee status and permanent visas, has ended with thousands of people living in limbo for the past decade.
Despite having constructed a whole new life for themselves in Australia, a majority of refugees remain fearful of a forced return as their deep roots in the country still remain largely unrecognised.
Naz was a 28-year-old Iranian single mother who fled her home with three young kids in tow to escape her government and ex-husband who sexually abused her and her children.
Bound for Indonesia, the smugglers brought them to Australia instead. Now 42, she was finally able to obtain herself and her two youngest permanent visas early last year after suffering through Australia’s fast-track process for over a decade.
A broken and unresolved system that has unfortunately left the disability support worker’s eldest son, 24, among the thousands of Australian refugees still living in limbo, unable to work, see their families, or rebuild their lives here.
I interviewed Naz to learn more about her experiences in Australia as well as her concerns for her and other refugee’s futures following Labour’s announcement of a 20 million dollar cut to asylum seeker assistance.
You can listen to the audio story through clicking this link or give our interview a read below.
In terms of your life here and the visa application process, what has been your experience in this country the past 14 years?
We just got here, 2010, and with lot of other peoples in detention centre for a year, 120 families in detention center, I can tell you, at 2011 all of them got permanent visas. They got out of detention, and me and another single mom, were left behind with no visa.
So, we got in that situation til 14 years after, seven years in detention center, in community detention centre, which they call it.
And in that community detention centre, we weren’t allowed to go to visit family and friends or for them to stay overnight. We had to get government permission. My house got robbed twice, then my son got beaten out of school, and I felt unsafe in where I was and I was feeling fear for my kids.
I was part of that program, on the fast track, because that time I had my temporary safe haven visa. The first interview I had, which was 2010, maybe a few months after I arrived in Australia.
They got the worst interpreter to translate. There was a lot of misunderstanding there. I remember that my interpreter sometimes had to stop the interview and put the words in the translator to translate it. How can you defend somebody, strongly, or the feeling that she shows and all that, when your English is not that good.
We have some people saying that they were 10 minutes in the interview. They just asked their name and their background and their date of birth and they got out of the interview and they just got accepted.
Some other people got in the interview, like myself, 9 hours. Who would think a person that age with three little kids is going to run away?
I was, I think, over a year waiting for the result of the interview, which I got rejected, and then they gave me another interview for the next year. After I got to that interview, I was waiting over a year to see the result of that, which I got rejected again. We got the new system, and the government started not giving visa to people.
So how long did it take from you arriving in Australia to get yourself and your children permanent visas in Australia?
For me and my daughter, it’s been about a year, but for my other son, it’s been about six months, and my oldest one, he’s still waiting. Since 2010 we still struggle. We still don’t have a normal life. You know, we still count as numbers. Nothing else.
We are not human beings here as well, so and it's very painful. It's very hard, very painful, very heartbreaking to see in this century to be treated by another government, another country, who believe in human rights with the most inhuman of behavior and action, keeping people in limbo. It's not fun.
Are you concerned that more people will continue to lose their lives waiting for the visas particularly after Labour’s announcements of budget cuts to asylum seeker assistance and immigration intake for 2025?
Of course, I see them all like, you know, you can see a dead person just walking, they’re so tired, they’re exhausted. It's a limbo. It’s like living in a hell. The little, tiny light in they had to run away to get somewhere safe, you’re turning that off on them. Every single decision is to make them more mentally sick, and what is the benefit? We don’t know.
What is the overall aim of the protests, and what are you hoping to see as a result of them?
I think the aim is really, trying to stay together and strong and continue the protest until they get a real result this time. And they, the people that I see that they’re not going to give up, because it’s their last hope.
I hope the government hears their voice, because I don’t know what’s going to happen after that if they lose this last chance and last hope they have.
Do some action, be real human beings, be a real person. How they can sleep, how they can sit with their families and their kids and enjoy their life when they’ve separated a lot of parents from their kids for over a decade.
4ZZZ contacted the Chalmers office on Wembley Road to give the Treasurer the opportunity to comment, but we haven’t received a response as of yet.
While producing this story, the protestors, who had permits, were handed eviction notices after a single complaint was made by the public.
The protest was relocated further away from the office, and will continue until they are given answers.