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Six refugees applied for visas in Australia but before the crisis | Issues of Human Rights

Six other Australian refugees have been issued with travel and prison visas, which give them temporary relief as they struggle to stay or seek permanent housing in a third country.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued visas to all six men, five of whom were detained at Melbourne Prison at the Park Hotel, which became a high-risk area for COVID-19.

A sixth refugee was detained in a prison in Brisbane.

All six were released on special visa, which would allow them to stay in Australia for a while as they prepare to leave the country. He had previously been detained in a Pacific detention center and later transferred to Australia in 2019.

Visas issued to them are not a means of obtaining a residency in Australia. But after the operation, the refugees may ask for extra time.

One of the refugees, Jeeva, told Al Jazeera that he would be shocked to hear of her release. Her name has been changed to protect her privacy.

“[Wednesday] in the evening [at] At 1 o’clock I knew it, ”he recalled. “She just told me [that] ‘The minister agreed [my visa] so we set you up [free]. ‘”

Jeeva was given 45 minutes to pack up before being taken to Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) to pick up all her belongings, and eventually landed at a hotel.

“Words can’t describe” freedom, he said, adding that he could breathe fresh air and walk without guards.

“I eat my traditional food,” Jeeva said, adding that he would not be able to cook his Sri Lankan food while in prison.

‘Easy to set free’

The timing of the release could not have been accidental, according to lawyer Noeline Balasanthiran Harendran. Harendran and his friend Daniel Taylor represented six refugees.

Something similar happened in November, when Three of Harendran and Taylor’s clients were also granted direct visas, just days before their trial.

Harendran said in both cases the government found it easier to provide refugees to Medevac instead of responding to what he and Taylor had to offer.

The whole case is based on a simple law under international law that requires the Australian government to provide security for repatriating refugees to the countries affected by the region: Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, and Nauru.

The evacuated refugees were all housed in a well-known Australian outback in the Pacific, before being detained along the Australian coast under Medevac, a temporary evacuation system.

The ‘Refugee Welcome Zone’ sign appears on the outside of a closed-door platform due to the spread of COVID-19 in Melbourne in 2020. [File: Sandra Sanders/Reuters]

They were at risk of being reimbursed for regional arrangements, a system that has been widely criticized for being insecure, so they were filing for a non-refundable review order before relocation. Refoulement is a practice of forcing refugees to return to a country where they may be persecuted.

Such a review is a responsibility under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which Australia signed, Harendran explained.

“If a person is scared for his life, we should test him,” he said.

“A fair review, in which my client is provided with a safe and secure form of communication, where they are legally represented, when they have an interpreter, and where there is a judicial review.”

Instead, the government granted visas to all six refugees.

‘Elephant in the room’

The elephant in the room, Harendran said, is what the release says about the government’s confidence in improving the region itself.

“Obviously, there’s something wrong with setting up a circuit if you don’t want to do constant research,” Harendran said.

If even a single non-reversible analysis is performed and Nauru and PNG are screened as unsafe for that person, he said, it could mean the end of regional repairs.

“[It] it could mean that Nauru and PNG would not be a good place to send refugees, ”he explained.

Right now, just freedom

But in the near future, Harendran said, the goal is simply to gain more freedom for its remaining customers.

He and Taylor are preparing for another trial next month, with the same controversy.

So far, 75 of the Medevac refugees detained in the region are now on the coast of Australia but still suffering in prison.

A refugee who was still detained at the Park Hotel, Mehdi Ali, recalled one of the refugees who was released on Wednesday crying as they left.

“I was like, ‘What’s wrong? Don’t cry daddy, ‘I hugged him and said,’ don’t cry, just get out … go ahead and don’t look back. [you], ‘”He said.

The refugees told Ali in response that he would not be happy with his freedom while people were still inside.

Mehdi said those who are left behind can suffer.

Another refugee, Amin Afravi, who is being held at the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation and Fraser Compound (BITA), said he was “feeling” the pain of fellow refugees still in prison.

He said: “People are suffering a lot. “When they see someone being released and imprisoned for no reason, and there is no reason.”

‘Slaying people’

Al Jazeera contacted the Interior Department of the Six Refugees released Wednesday, but a spokesman for the department said “the department has not commented on any of the cases”.

“Australian government’s policy has not changed and illegal immigrants will not be able to settle in Australia.

“People who have been released from prison are provided with long-term care through the Status Resolution Support Services program including staff support, accommodation and financial assistance.”

Meanwhile, human rights activists are calling for the release of all Medevac refugees such as Mehdi and Amin who remain in refugee camps.

Ian Rintoul, a politician and spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, said that “as far as he is concerned”, a lack of clarity brings anxiety and depression to those who are left.

“If it is better to release six more then it is better to release everyone, there is no need to be human,” he said.

Meanwhile, Amin said he was “trying to survive”, looking at what he could control.

“They are slowly killing people in prison,” he said.

“If you are discouraged, there is nothing in this world [that] can bring back your thoughts. And people are losing their minds[s]. So what is the difference between a corpse, a dead person, and someone else? [who has] mentally disturbed? ”




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