Job Summit needs to provide people seeking asylum in Australia the right to work, study and rebuild

Media Release

2 September 2022

Providing people seeking asylum in Australia the right to work, study and rebuild their lives is a clear way to address critical labour shortages and many other issues currently being discussed at the Jobs and Skills Summit.

Currently, people seeking asylum have to wait years, more often than not half a decade, for their application for protection to be processed. During this time many are kept on harmful bridging visas that often do not provide the right to work, the right to study and the right to rebuild their lives through access to mainstream social support. Some refugees are kept on harmful temporary visas for extended periods even after this process.

At a time when Australia is in desperate need of workers, many skilled, hardworking people are excluded from the labour market, despite wanting to work. ASRC estimates that at any given time 1 in every 3 people seeking asylum, of which there are around 100,000, in Australia on a bridging visa, will lack the right to work.

This is combined with punitive policies that limit the right to study while forcing those who can study to pay international fees and denying any Commonwealth loans. This is despite the clear benefits access to education has for both refugees and society as a whole.

People who sought asylum in Australia have also been systematically excluded from the mainstream social support system that others in Australia access. The little available support has been systematically cut preventing people from having the support networks in place to seek employment. Enabling people seeking asylum to access fair social support, including childcare, will allow people to build a better life as part of the community.

Providing basic rights to people seeking asylum to rebuild their lives would complement the aims of the Job and Skills Summit. Securing work rights, study rights and access to mainstream support will not only address critical jobs shortage but also foster secure employment, promote strong wage growth and allow equal opportunity for all women in Australia.

Sol, a refugee previously held on Nauru and currently in Australia, said: “Four years ago I had a full scholarship at the University of the South Pacific (USP) while I was held on Nauru. But I arrived in Australia and I was detained in the community, I had to stop my study on the spot because the minister said I was not allowed a qualification, I cannot go on holiday, I cannot work, it is an open-air prison. By now I could have graduated, I could have had a master’s, but it has been wasted.”

“I have been running a men’s group and many of them are on bridging visas and it is devastating, people are tired, families are breaking up. From our background, men are meant to provide for their kids, for their families. So when you tell them you can’t study you can’t work you take their identity from them.”

“I have volunteered with a lot of organisations and people are offering me jobs, but they are not allowed to hire me. I cannot work, I cannot study, I cannot buy my children the things they need. The damage has been done to us but now it is being transferred onto our children, it is so terrifying to see a bunch of politicians in Canberra make these decisions.”

Amir, a refugee and Brisbane Kebab shop manager, said: “When I arrived in Australia in 2012 it was two years I did not have work or study permission, I had no permission to do anything and waited for immigration for two years. When I was allowed to work I could not find job opportunities because I had a bridging visa. When I found a job it was outside my area and just three-month contracts at a time.”

“Now I am working in a Kebab shop running a small business since 2019, but still, it is very hard, since COVID and the floods it has not been easy. I cannot apply for a loan from a bank for the business because I have a temporary visa.”

“It has been 10 years, people are suffering from bridging visas, a lot of people came here with the hope to live normal lives but could not get this because of bridging visas, it would be great to have the opportunity to work, to work in their area. But we have one choice, to try and find any work and survive, when we try to do more the visas restrict us. People survived the journey here but now they are struggling.”

Ogy Simic, acting Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), said: “If the Albanese Government wants to address the issues being discussed at the Jobs and Skills Summit right now, his Government could provide the right to work, study and rebuild to thousands of people seeking asylum in Australia. ”

“At a time when Australia is in desperate need of workers and migrants who will call Australia home, there is a system in which thousands of people are denied the rights and opportunities to thrive. People seeking asylum want to rebuild their lives, they are ready to work and study but are senselessly denied these rights because of the policy framework the Albanese Government has inherited. This does not have to be the case and must change.”

–ENDS–

Media contact: Sam Brennan 0428 973 324 or sam.b4@asrc.org.au

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