Tamil asylum seeker Mano Yagolingam set himself alight on August 27. He suffered catastrophic burns to more than 80% of his body and died in hospital the next day.
His death is a result of the bipartisan cruelty towards refugees and asylum seekers.
Labor and the Coalition have agreed on harsh policies to deter refugees from coming to Australia. These policies have caused terrible suffering and many people have died as a result.
Mano had been struggling, largely due to being stuck in limbo on a temporary visa for 12 years.
Twelve years is not “temporary” and, for an applicant who cannot return to Sri Lanka due to well-founded fear of persecution, or worse, it’s a long time to wait.
Some people have been deported, or forced to return to the country they fled, because they couldn’t surmount the barriers of living on a restrictive visa.
Temporary protection visa and bridging visa holders have limited access to tertiary education and healthcare, and they are vulnerable to super-exploitation from bosses.
Refugees apply to settle here because they are fleeing war, persecution, climate disasters, economic crises and genocides.
Some have survived the harshness of refugee camps, including in Manus and Nauru.
Anthony Albanese’s Labor government announced in December 2022 that 19,000 refugees living in limbo on temporary visas would be able to apply for permanency.
But the 12,000 refugees who had to navigate the “fast-track” process under Prime Minister Scott Morrison were left out.
No one knows why, except on ideological grounds: the Coalition decided there is a “right” and “wrong” way to seek asylum.
Labor followed along and continued to punish some of the world’s most desperate people.
Mano was one of them. He came to Australia with his family by boat when he was 11, after being forced to flee the government’s genocide —which continues with Australia’s complicity.
The major parties are culpable of stopping some people from reaching safety, and they then make people feel trapped. Refugees who come here by boat are last on the list to be processed. Temporary protection visa holders are denied family reunions or the right to return to Australia if they leave. That means many people never have the chance to see their loved ones overseas.
To be denied the right to travel adds to refugees’ torture and is the source of depression and anxiety. Mano had expressed a strong desire to travel overseas.
Labor’s cruel approach is being challenged, however.
Refugees and asylum seekers have set up around-the-clock encampments in Naarm/Melbourne, Gadigal Country/Sydney, Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide and Boorloo/Perth, calling for permanent protection, an end to deportations and the ability for families to reunite.
They are a powerful reminder of the unnecessary suffering of the thousands of human victims of Labor’s policies, which directly contravene Australia’s obligations under the 1951 United Nations refugee convention.
Home Affairs minister Tony Burke said the protesting refugees are not helping their cause.
The opposite is true: they are putting a human face to Labor’s cruel policy.
Burke even conceded to protesting refugees at his office in Punchbowl last week that he didn’t have the data on how many people are affected.
The protests have garnered a lot of public support, but they have also attracted violent racists: two refugee women from the encampment in Naarm ended up in hospital and neo-Nazis have harassed the refugees.
The major parties are responsible for encouraging such extremism by blaming asylum seekers and migrants for their own policy failures.
Unfortunately, the racist scapegoating of migrants and refugees is nothing new.
Worse, Australia’s normalisation of far-right immigration policies has inspired other countries to adopt the same approach.
This includes Britain’s controversial Rwanda asylum seeker deal and its floating prison of 400 asylum seekers.
Morrison encouraged then-US President Donald Trump’s Muslim immigration ban in 2017.
To deny people a safe future is wrong. The right to asylum, in the face of war or persecution, is a fundamental human right.
Australia’s refusal to create a special visa for Gazans trying to flee Israel’s genocide, as it did for Ukrainians, underscores just how much racism influences its policy.
Mano was 23 years old and father to a 1-year-old. He was helping organise the encampment, but did not receive a shred of hope from authorities.
He is the second asylum seeker awaiting a permanent residency determination to have died by suicide in the past month.
Forty-eight asylum seekers have died awaiting a residency decision in the 12 years since mandatory offshore detention for asylum seekers arriving by boat was introduced.
It is literally a matter of life and death: Labor must give those 12,000 people permanent visas.
Socialist Alliance will continue to push for Labor to adopt a humanitarian approach to people seeking asylum.
[Chloe DS is refugee rights activist and a member of the national executive of Socialist Alliance.]