Refugee women walk 640km to Parliament House calling for end to visa uncertainty

Media Release
18 October 2023

Twenty-two refugee women today arrived at Parliament House after a 640km walk from Melbourne, calling on the Australian government to provide a clear path to permanent residence for around 10,000 people left in limbo for a decade.

The 22 Tamil and Iranian women, aged 19-52, are living on short term bridging visas, having been denied a fair assessment of their applications for protection under the previous government’s flawed and inaptly-named ‘fast track’ refugee assessment process that has impacted around 10,000 people.

In opposition, Labor acknowledged the ‘fast track’ system is flawed, and not “a fair, thorough and robust assessment process for persons seeking asylum”.

Today, on the final day of their walk from Melbourne to Parliament, the 22 refugee women called on the government to act immediately to offer a clear path to permanent residency for people failed by the fast track process.

Rathi Barthlote, a Tamil refugee from Albion and co-founder of Refugee Women Action for Visa Equality, said:
“For the past four weeks, we’ve been on a 640 kilometre journey on foot to call for an end to the uncertainty that 10,000 refugees like us face.

“We are refugees who came to Australia seeking safety, but after a decade still do not have a clear pathway to permanent residency. The last government stacked the refugee system against us. They called this system ‘Fast Track’ — but it wasn’t fast and it wasn’t fair.

“I lost my first child because of the Sri Lankan civil war and I haven’t seen my mother for 18 years. It breaks my heart that my mother is living alone and I cannot reunite with my family. Now Australia is our home and our children’s home. There are 10,000 of us, living as part of communities across Australia. Many of us are prevented from working or studying and our children cannot go to university like other children. All of us are still waiting, after 10 years, for a permanent place to call home, a place to belong.

“We have walked to Parliament House to ask the Albanese government to end the dreadful mental health toll that uncertainty has and give 10,000 people a clear path to permanence. After a decade, our home is here.”

Samira Zadeh, an Iranian refugee from Mill Park, said:
“I left Iran and came to Australia in 2013 because of the lack of freedom and safety for women in Iran. I now have three children who were born in Australia but don’t have access to Medicare and my 4-year-old twins can’t attend childcare.

“My family has built our home in Australia. We have lived, worked, and been part of our community in Mill Park for ten years. This is why we’re asking from our hearts to give us certainty and a path to permanent visas so we can rebuild our lives and our children can be part of building the wonderful Australia of the future.”

Ogy Simic, Director of Advocacy at the ASRC, said:
“After fleeing danger and persecution, these 22 courageous refugee women and their families have become key members of the community in St Albans, Mill Park, Bulleen, Geelong, and more. But they have been denied permanent residency and the possibility of citizenship under the flawed and inaptly-named ’Fast Track’ system.

“These courageous women have taken great risks to make the journey from their homes and communities in Melbourne. The Australian government must now listen, abolish the flawed ‘Fast Track’ system, and offer the 10,000 people failed by the system for 10 years a clear path to permanency.”

–ENDS–

Notes:

Media contact: Maddison Bates-Willis at +61 401 244 296 or maddison.b@asrc.org.au

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