There is despair in the eyes of Rohingya and Bangladesh asylum seekers at a week-long community meeting in Gatton, Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane.
A decade ago, these men risked everything when they fled to Australia by boat, leaving behind women, children and family in an attempt to start a new and safer life that their loved ones could join in the future. .
But years later, they languish, discouraged, and depressed.
They are no longer in immediate danger, but by living like this — many without visas because their asylum applications have been rejected — they are far from safe, according to refugee advocates and asylum seekers.
Jane Williamson facilitates a meeting between refugee service providers and asylum seekers in Gatton. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
“If you don’t have Medicare, who do you go to when you’re sick?” The meeting facilitator, Jane Williamson, asks a Toowoomba man.
“Only Panadol,” one of the men quickly replies. “Paracetamol,” says another. “Panadol,” another one rings out again, as his answers overlap.
“The hospital is too far away,” a voice comes from another table.
Mrs. Williamson seems shocked when she realizes that men do not have access to basic health care.
The biggest problem for so many refugees in Gatton is that they have no labor rights. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
There is a hospital in Gatton, but those in the group who do not have a valid visa, do not meet the requirements for Medicare and are not entitled to work in Australia, so they do not have the money to pay for medical appointments or treatment.
To access free medical care they have to travel to the Brisbane Mater Refugee Complex (MRCCC) Care Clinic, but most do not have the means to get there.
Thus, while farmers in this horticultural center desperately need workers, many of the 20 or so men in this meeting who need work spend their days asleep or idle, with no access to government welfare.
The men say they would be happy to work on the farms in the Lockyer Valley if they could. (ABC Rural: Jodie Gunders)
They depend on free lunch boxes, a $ 400 cash delivery from the Red Cross each month, and live crammed into run-down properties where no one else wants to live.
They say they have been like this for years because it is not safe to return to their homelands, and they live in the hope that their situation will improve so they can keep their promises to help their families.
The Melbourne Asylum Seeker Resource Center (ASRC) estimates that there are at least 2,000 people in similar circumstances across the country.
Mrs. Williamson said she and her colleagues then sat in astonished silence as they returned to Toowoomba after the meeting in Gatton.
“We were surprised that people in our communities could be living in limbo for so long,” he said.
“If we are not aware of it, the general public is certainly not.
“It’s like silent forgotten people.”
Some of the Rohingya refugees have been blocked with restrictive temporary protection visas for more than 10 years. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
There is no data on how many live like this
The population of asylum seekers and refugees in Gatton is made up almost exclusively of young men, because they were the ones considered best to make the risky boat trip to Australia by their families.
An immigration lawyer said many of the men’s asylum applications had been denied and they had exhausted their legal options, but instead of being detained or deported by government authorities, they had been allowed to live like ghosts. among the community.
The lawyer, who asked for anonymity because of a current asylum seeker case, said immigration ministers had the discretion to allow people who did not choose bridge visas to apply for them. licitin.
The men say it is still unsafe for them to return home. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
“But ministers have preferred to let people languish in the visa-free community, in the hope that life will be too difficult for them, and they will decide to return home,” the lawyer said.
It is unclear how many people are living an existence like this in Australia because the federal government is not following them.
In a response to Senate estimates in February 2022, the Department of the Interior said:
“As of December 31, 2021, there were 2,352 Irregular Maritime Arrivals (IMAs) (excluding transitional persons) who had applied for a protection visa and the Bridging E visa from which it had ceased.
Note: The Department does not maintain statistics in the form of a notification for non-IMA asylum seekers whose Bridging E visa has ceased. “
Hannah Dickinson, the ASRC’s lead attorney, said it was cruel to leave people in such dire circumstances for so long.
“People who require ministerial intervention to obtain a visa are only left pending,” he said.
Hannah Dickinson is the Senior Advocate at the Melbourne Asylum Seeker Resource Center.
“You can only imagine how stressful that must be.”
When the federal government intervened in the Nadesalingam family case in May, granting the Tamil family bridge visas so they could return to Biloela, central Queensland, the measure gave new hope to asylum seekers around the world. country.
“I have said before that I see no impediment to the family settling permanently in Australia, but this will be a decision of the minister,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in June when he met with the family.
However, a Home Office spokesman told the ABC on Friday that the government’s position on not allowing people traveling to Australia by boat to settle here permanently had not changed.
“These policies have successfully curbed the flow of unauthorized shipping companies in Australia, disrupted smuggling activities in the region and prevented the loss of lives at sea,” the spokesman said.
Tharnicaa, on the left, and Kopika Nadesalingam receive a hug from the Prime Minister. (Twitter: @alboMP)
Although the spokesman did not specifically address the plight of asylum seekers in Gatton, it is understood that individuals have a responsibility to maintain their “commitment” to the Department of the Interior, and whether the visas of the people have expired, they are encouraged to contact the department. state resolution service.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has previously told the ABC that it is “committed to offering” the Albanian government’s political platform, which says “The work will abolish temporary protection visas (POS) and visas for safe haven company (SHEV) and will pass eligible refugees on a permanent visa. arrangements “.
There are about 19,000 “eligible” refugees in POS and SHEV vehicles, but the government has refused to comment on a transition period or clarify what the plan is for the thousands of others who still have bridge visas, and those who do not. visas.
‘I can’t go back’
Kabir met his wife Mary while in custody and now they have a daughter. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
Bangladesh Ash Kabir * asylum seeker has no visa or employment rights since 2018.
He said he was a political refugee when he arrived in Australia in 2013 and, due to government corruption, was not safe in his home country.
Kabir was initially issued a temporary safe haven visa and then a bridge visa, but when it was not renewed, he was left without rights.
Immigration sometimes asks me, ‘Okay, you’re coming back to your country,’ and I said to myself, ‘I can’t go back, if I can go back, [would] no [have come] here and [risked my] life, ”Kabir said.
“They said,‘ Your story, us [do] don’t believe it “.
But Kabir has been luckier than some. He met and married Mary *, a woman from the Solomon Islands, while they were in custody, and now they have a young daughter.
Unlike him, Mary and her daughter do have visas and a Medicare card.
Kabir and his family share an old house in Gatton with a Samoan family. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
Kabir and his family now share a home with a local Samoan family.
“Whenever some people give us something, we cook there and share it,” Kabir said.
Humble dream still out of reach
Hussain * is a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who arrived in Australia by boat in 2012.
At their home in Rakhine state, the Rohingya people, an ethnic Muslim minority, have experienced well-documented genocidal destruction at the hands of the Myanmar army.
Hussain, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, has been blocked for years on a temporary visa. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
“They are on fire [sic]… violating our own peoples, sisters and my own people, ”Hussain said.
“They are fighting for a long, long time. They are still fighting.
“I want to have a new life, just like the Australians, that’s why I came to Australia at risk.”
Hussain has been blocked with a temporary visa for more than 10 years.
He can work and has a Medicare card, but he can’t travel home and come back without ministerial approval, so he hasn’t seen his family since he came to Australia and says his mental health is suffering.
Hussain is still mourning the death of his mother in 2021.
“I saw her [in a] video call and her [was] a corpse, ”he said.
“I feel very emotional … how you are [are] treat others [who] they’re the same too, I feel very uncomfortable with that. ”
Hussain shares a house with a group of other Rohingya refugees. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
Hussain was 18 when he arrived in Australia. Now in his 20s, he says his situation is difficult, but his Muslim faith keeps him strong.
“In my heart only [be] patient – myself, when I [feel] stressful, I’m going to pray, ”he said.
“I want to have a normal life, a daily life: a small house, a small car, a small family, that’s my dream.
“To live [in] Australia [and] to put on a smile every day [on] my own wife, my children, that is in my future. “
Several times a day, Hussain spreads his rug on the kitchen floor to Gatton to pray. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)
* Names have been changed
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