BRISBANE, Queensland (CU)_As per refugee advocates, dozens of asylum seekers who were detained in a motel in Brisbane are being released into the community on bridging visas.
According to a statement issued on Monday morning by The Refugee Action Coalition, it appears that 25 persons who were detained at the Kangaroo Hotel in Brisbane are in the process of being granted bridging visas. Alongside the 25 persons are two more additional refugees who were held back at the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation.
Under the now-repealed medevac law, dozens of asylum seekers were brought into Australia in January and unexpectedly released from detention in Melbourne. As stated by Peter Dutton, Home Affairs Minister, it was cost-effective at the time to allow them to live within the community rather than in detention centres.
On Monday, Thanush Selvarasa, one of the released detainees in Melbourne posted a photo on Twitter saying that dozens of detainees had been transferred from the Kangaroo Point Hotel to the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA).
According to Refugee Voices, an advocacy group on asylum seekers, they had also heard and received information that 25 persons were in fact being released in Brisbane and a further group of detainees in Sydney and Darwin are also expected to receive bridging visas in the next few days.
“We have been in direct contact with some of them this morning and they have been picking up their property and getting their bridging visas,” founder Ahmad Hakim told SBS News on Monday morning.Mr Hakim said he was happy but that more work lay ahead to help get all medevac immigration detainees released.
A complaint was filed with the Australian Human Rights Commission by Muslim detainees at the Kangaroo Point Hotel sighting that they were not served with certified halal food for more than 12 months.
RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul said after the 25 medevac detainees in Brisbane are released, there will still be more than 70 others in detention centres across Australia.
“The government’s lack of transparency and chaotic release of medevac refugees is causing increased anxiety and stress among those left behind,” he said. “Eight years of detention and human rights abuse is too long. They should all be released immediately.”
Jana Favero, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s director of advocacy and campaigns, also said “the arbitrary, delayed nature of releases” and absence of much government information has caused severe mental health harm to asylum seekers still detained.
“People need freedom to recover their health and a permanent home so they can have a future, not six-month visas and more years of stress and failing.”
A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs did not confirm how many people were being released, but said final departure bridging E visas had been granted with work rights and access to Medicare. They also reiterated the government’s long-standing position that people under regional processing arrangements would not settle permanently in Australia.
“The Australian government remains committed to regional processing and third-country resettlement for persons under these arrangements,” they said.
“Transitory persons have third country migration options and are encouraged to finalize their medical treatment so they can continue on their resettlement pathway to the United States, return to Nauru or PNG, or return to their home country.”
