Sarah Stephen
Conceding the situation in the war-torn country was not "settling down", immigration minister Amanda Vanstone announced on April 10 that the government would lift the freeze on processing asylum applications from Iraqis on three-year temporary protection visas.
Prime Minister John Howard endorsed Vanstone's announcement, telling reporters on April 10: "Amanda Vanstone has quite rightly indicated in view of the less settled situation in Iraq of recent times there may be a case for examination of those [TPV holders] on a case by case basis."
Labor immigration spokesperson Stephen Smith called for accelerated processing, telling the April 10 Melbourne Age that under existing arrangements "it could take up to 70 years to finalise all of the 8,900 TPV cases in the Australian community".
Iraqis were the largest group to arrive by boat in the three years to 2002 and 4269 of them (more than 90%) were assessed as genuine refugees who had fled death or persecution. Following the expiry of their three-year visas, 4107 have applied to stay in Australia. The 1809 who arrived before the law changed in September 2001 can stay permanently if their applications are accepted, while most of the rest are eligible only for a new three-year visa.
The Democrats welcomed the announcement, but called for the 50 Iraqis still held on Nauru to also be released from detention and brought to Australia.
As of May 6, 79 Afghan asylum seekers had received decisions from the Refugee Review Tribunal after appealing against the immigration department's decision not to renew their temporary protection visas. Over three-quarters of all cases have been successful. The RRT overturned the immigration department's decision, sending 61 asylum seekers' cases back to the department to reconsider.
This is a significant development which reflects two things: the strength of evidence that the situation in Afghanistan is not safe to return to, and the sympathy that has developed within the Australian population for the suffering of asylum seekers on temporary visas, due in large part to the ongoing campaign by the refugee-rights movement, in particular by Rural Australians for Refugees.
A Saulwick poll released on October 19 found that 54% of those polled thought refugees on temporary visas should return home if it is safe to do so, while 39% thought they should be able to stay if they wanted to. Only 37% thought that the Australian government should be responsible for deciding whether it is safe to return; 55% would prefer it was assessed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The majority of the Afghans and Iraqis on temporary visas are likely to be assessed to still be refugees and allowed to stay in Australia. However legislation passed in September 2001 bars them from ever becoming permanent residents, condemning at least half of the 8900 refugees to rolling three-year TPVs and ongoing uncertainty. This underlines the importance of those campaigning for refugees to be able to stay also campaigning for the complete abolition of temporary visas.
From Green Left Weekly, April 21, 2004.
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