A group of refugees and advocates has staged a peaceful protest outside Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs assistant minister Julian Hill’s electorate office in Dandenong.
The two-day protest from 19-20 November at highlighted the “legacy caseload” of Bridging Visa E (BVE) holders who renew every six months but are awaiting permanent protection in Australia.
Among them are Sara Mashalian, her mother Roghieh and Hussain Kamali who fled Iran to Australia in 2013.
Despite being subjected to what they say were horrific scenes, treatment and conditions at Nauru and Manus Island detention centres, they have led successful lives without any government support.
After 12 years of living in the community, paying taxes, securing successful employment, they are requesting permanent residency to do much more.
According to protestors, Bruce MP Hill didn’t address the crowd or have any discussions about their situation.
A spokesperson for Hill stated more than 20,000 visa holders had been provided permanent protection by the Labor Federal Government.
“Where a genuine refugee is eligible for permanent residency, many of the long-term outstanding cases involve complex identity or character issues.
“However, every case is different, and Ministers cannot comment on individual cases for privacy and legal reasons.”
A majority of Temporary Protection Visa and SHEV holders have been granted Resolution of Status (RoS) visas – a step on the pathway to permanent protection.
But there remains 2853 Bridging E visa holders in Victoria – the majority of which are Sri Lankan, Iranian, Pakistani, Iraqi or stateless backgrounds with smaller numbers of Afghan, Vietnamese and Indian nationals.
Sara Mashalian fled Iran with her mother for their religious conversion from Islam to Christianity.
She has settled in Sydney with her husband Ali, who arrived in 2008 on a skilled visa.
Surrounded by her Australian citizen family, including extended family, Mashalian and her mother are the only ones left without permanent residency.
“The biggest thing I want is to be able to be better than now, have a good sleep.
“I still wish for a one good night’s sleep without any stress of receiving a call from Immigration to say you have to go from here.”
Despite facing barriers to study, she is employed and works as a dental assistant.
“Today I’m here as a woman who has worked as cleaner, worked in supermarkets, restaurants. Without any experience I work as a dental assistant.
“Even yesterday I requested the immigration department to allow me to study and attain a certificate.
“They told me go to another country if you want to study.”
At a time when Australia’s workforce is in need of employees, Ms Mashalian wanted to study dentistry, a certificate in dental assistant or beautician but her visa conditions doesn’t allow for that.
“After all these 12 years what do they want?
“After we have assimilated in the society, after all these pressures, challenges we went through. I pay tax right now, I work – what else do they want?”
Her husband Ali – a successful managing director of a company – says their issues are more than just being unable to study.
“The time that I spent protesting, coming here, writing letters, emails, getting a lawyer … if I spent that time on my business, or when I socialise with my friends and colleagues instead of talking about these issues, I could talk about a unique innovation or other matters that the entire of Australia can benefit from.
“Every night she has a nightmare that someone pushes her from a high building.
“She was pregnant but had a miscarriage because of immense mental stress and pressure on her body.
“She is 42 years of age. After a few years it’ll be difficult for her to fall pregnant, that chance will leave us.
“These are major issues for us, these need to be solved from its roots.”
Mashalian and her mother were declared healthy when detained at Nauru detention centre when they first arrived just like the majority.
However, they were taken to Darwin for an emergency medical treatment as her mother experienced a heart attack.
Scarred for life, her mother’s mental condition, heart health and overall health has worsened under the fear that police officers or security guards will be after her to detain her back in Nauru.
Hussain Kamali operates a successful restaurant and supermarket, all without any loan from the bank due to the uncertainty of his visa. It was only made possible by loans from family and friends.
He has 16 staff working for him, he pays immense GST bills but says he’s not allowed to have a credit card from the bank.
“Even during Covid the government provided payment reliefs to citizens and those with PR but people from our cohort who had small business suffered a lot without support and were forced to close their business.
“I spoke to the ATO that we are taxed just like another citizen but at times of support we aren’t provided any support. They say you differ from everyone else.
“This is not fair and that is very painful.
“This country is truly a country to be loved but unfortunately the government doesn’t see us, and it’s this turning blind eye that is painful.”
