refugee – Michmutters
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Australia

Family who fled Afghanistan reunited in Adelaide after a decade apart, after successful court case against Australian government

A family who fled Afghanistan after their daughter was killed in a missile attack has finally been reunited in South Australia.

The Rezaee family had been separated for more than a decade as they waited for humanitarian visas to be processed.

Abdullah Rezaee said he was granted permanent refugee status in Australia in 2011, after he was forced to flee his homeland.

“I was working in an association and, because of that, my life was being threatened by the Taliban and I was at risk, so I couldn’t feel safe in Afghanistan, so I had to flee,” he said.

“That time was very hard for me, I was upset and sick.”

A young man in a maroon top hugs a small child wearing a red shirt
Fida Rezaee, 17, with her sister, Maliha, two.(ABC News: Che Chorley)

After moving to Pakistan as refugees, Abdullah’s wife, Fatima, and their surviving children applied for Australian visas in 2017.

Earlier this year, they still had received no response, so the family took the Australian government to court over the delay.

Their lawyer, Josephine Langbien, said the court case argued that the government had failed its legal responsibility to determine visa applications within a reasonable time.

“They had been waiting [more than] four years and I think anyone can agree that it is simply an unreasonable length of time to have to wait,” Ms Langbien said.

The Australian government granted the case and issued the family with permanent visas.

Weeks later the family were reunited in Adelaide.

A man wearing a black jacket and white shirt looks directly into the camera
Abdullah Rezaee and his family lived apart for a decade.(ABC News: Che Chorley)

Zamin Ali, 20, said there were tears of joy when he first saw his father.

“I was waiting for the moment of the reunion with my father. It was like a dream come true,” he said.

“It was as if I was waiting my whole life to be reunited with my father because we were apart for many years.”

Mr Ali now dreams of becoming a professional soccer player or a doctor.

His younger sister, 14-year-old Frozan, has been taking English lessons for new arrivals.

Mr Rezaee said it was “very important” that his children could go to school.

“In Pakistan and in Afghanistan they cannot go to school. They have a lot of problems,” he said.

“Now, here, they are going to school. I am very happy.”

A young smiling girl stares out of a window covered with a thin white curtain
Frozan Rezaee, 14, has been taking English lessons.(ABC News: Che Chorley)

The family’s four-year visa order is not uncommon.

Ms Langbien — who works at the Human Rights Law Center — said thousands of Afghan families remained separated while waiting for visas.

“After two decades of war, Australia owes a moral obligation to the people of Afghanistan,” she said.

“We have a responsibility to do more to help. We can do more to help.”

“We need the new government to increase its commitment to supporting families who are separated between Australia and Afghanistan and work so much faster to bring those families back together.”

The Human Rights Law Center said 211,000 Afghans have applied for humanitarian visas in Australia since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan a year ago.

Ms Langbien said more than 7,000 people from Afghanistan were currently waiting for family visas to be processed, and close to 5,000 of those have been waiting longer than two years for an answer.

“We promised additional humanitarian visas, but we know that only a few thousand of those visas have actually been issued,” she said.

A smiling woman wearing a gray hijab
Fatima Rezaee’s family were one of many waiting for visas to be processed.(ABC News: Che Chorley)

Federal government figures show that, in the past year, more than 1,700 Afghan partner and family visas have been granted.

Some of these applications were lodged back in 2012.

Arif Hussein from the Refugee Advice and Casework Service said the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan was reflected in the number of people who have sought protection from the Australian government.

“It’s important to remember [that] many of these applicants are immediate family members of those in Australia: wives, husbands and children,” he said.

“Our new government must take the opportunity for concrete action for other people from Afghanistan by committing to, and implementing, a one-off, 20,000 humanitarian intake of the most vulnerable people.”

A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said a total of 31,500 places would be available for Afghan nationals over the next four years.

“The Australian government remains committed to supporting the Afghan community at this distressing time,” the spokesperson said.

“The department is working to ensure that visa options continue to be available to Afghan nationals, both within Afghanistan and those who have been displaced from their home country.”

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Categories
Australia

Iranian asylum seeker on bridging visa wants permanency in Australia to care for her sick daughter

Elham Amareh is used to feeling fear and uncertainty, having fled Iran with her husband, son and daughter and making the treacherous journey to Australia by boat in 2013.

“My family is very strict with religion, and I didn’t follow my religion, and because I lose my hijab and lose my religion [sic]I cannot go back,” she said.

“If I return to my country, they will kill me straight away, and they will kill my daughter as well.”

Ms Amareh has lived in Australia for a decade now, but her attempts to secure a protection visa have been denied.

Instead, her family has lived on six-month bridging visas for most of that time.

Life’s uncertainties became too much to bear in January this year, when her 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma – a type of blood cancer.

A woman stands next to a teenage girl in a hospital bed whose hair has fallen out from cancer treatment
Elham Amareh’s 16-year-old daughter, Areezo, is undergoing treatment in hospital for T-cell lymphoma. (Supplied)

“I am depressed [and] I can’t sleep,” she said.

“My whole family is depressed about [my daughter].

“As a mum, it’s hard when I see my child sick.

“I can’t go back to my country [because] it is hard to find her treatment in my country, and very expensive.”

People in limbo for years

Ms Amareh gradually reduced her work hours after her daughter’s diagnosis, and eventually quit, to spend more time at the hospital.

She said her husband was too depressed to work more than a few days each week, and her family was currently living in a house offered up as a short-term option by a friend.

While her visa arrangements include Medicare access, other supports such as those available through Centrelink are not included.

“I’ve been here a long time, we pay taxes, and we have children here,” she said.

“I just want a good life for my kids.”

A man sits next to a woman who is affectionately holding the shoulders of a teenage girl, they are sitting in a restaurant
The Amareh family has been living on six-month bridging visas for most of the last decade.(Supplied)

Immigration lawyer Chris Johnston said there were many others across the country struggling to find stability under current visa arrangements.

He said some were asylum seekers, like Ms Amareh, who had been denied refugee status, but were unable to return safely to their home country – creating a state of limbo.

“The system is messy, and it leaves many people in limbo for long periods of time,” he said.

“People are on bridging visas for up to a decade, and their life goes on [and] their children grow up and they’re still on bridging visas.

“There’s the uncertainty of, ‘If I get this visa refused, am I going to be put into detention? If I get put into detention, am I going to be deported?’

“It’s very stressful.”

Mr Johnston said the six-monthly renewal requirement, as well as some restrictions on access to healthcare, welfare, and education, made it extremely difficult for traumatized people to move on with their lives.

“They’re spending a lot of time just trying to access things, and get the basics for life,” he said.

Mr Johnston suggested a longer time frame between renewal could be applied, to reduce the pressure of six-monthly applications.

Giving refugees permanency

Around the same time Ms Amareh arrived in Australia, the number of asylum seekers traveling to the country by boat was increasing dramatically.

Successive Labor and Coalition governments brought in a range of policies designed to stop the arrival of boats carrying asylum seekers and deter people smuggling.

When the last Labor government was defeated in 2013, the Coalition reintroduced Temporary Protection Visas, available for a period of three years for people who arrive in Australia without a visa and were found to be owed international protection obligations.

Female hands holding two photographs
Elham Amareh fled Iran with her husband and two children in 2012.(ABC News: Trent Murphy)

In the lead up to this year’s federal election, Labor promised to abolish that scheme, along with the Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEVs), and “transition eligible refugees onto permanent visa arrangements.”

About 19,000 refugees on TPVs and SHEVs could be “eligible” under the changes.

Mr Johnston said the government had a “difficult challenge ahead” to develop the details of that “transition” in a timely fashion.

“Immigration policy is not an easy thing to do,” he said.

“But this is the time to do it, in the first year of their term.

“We don’t want to see this go on for another three years, or another six years.

“The time to act is now.”

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said he was “currently considering options on how best to resolve the current cohort’s visa status.”

“This Government will stop wasting taxpayer money reassessing their visas every three or five years … [and] will deliver on our commitment to convert those on temporary protection visas and safe haven enterprise visas to permanent protection visas,” he said.

A woman stirring a pot in a kitchen
Elham Amareh wants to live in Australia to care for her daughter.(ABC News: Trent Murphy)

What about bridging visas?

While the new Labor Government’s plan is a source of hope to certain visa-holders, the changes won’t help others stuck on bridging visas, like Ms Amareh and her family.

She said her family was desperate to stay in the country permanently, and focus on her daughter’s treatment.

“I want to be treated like an Australian citizen,” she said.

“Please — I want this government to look after us.”

The Minister for Immigration, Andrew Giles, has the power to intervene in migration matters.

A spokesperson for the Minister said he was unable to comment on individual cases, but that “every case was assessed on its individual merits.”

The Federal Government declined to comment on whether any policy changes were being considered around bridging visas held by asylum seekers, specifically Bridging Visa E (050).

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