A group of asylum-seekers holding a sit-in protest in a bid to gain permanent protection hope a cabinet reshuffle will help their pleas get heard.
Create a free account to read this article
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The group has been protesting for two weeks at the electoral office of Clare O'Neil, who was moved from the home affairs portfolio in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's cabinet reshuffle.
Andrew Giles was removed as immigration minister with the portfolio and home affairs added to Tony Burke's his ministries. The changes were sworn in on Monday.
The asylum-seekers have moved their sit-in to the home affairs office in Melbourne.
Dubbed the fast-track system cohort, there are between 10,000 to 12,000 asylum seekers left in legal limbo in Australia with no clear pathway to residency.
The former coalition government established an assessment scheme to resolve the visa applications of more than 30,000 asylum seekers who arrived by boat between 2012 and 2014.
The fast-track system restricts the types of visas people can access and limits their avenues of appeal.
But the policy has been criticised for failing to live up to its name.
On average, it takes up to six years for people to receive their first temporary visa.
"I am praying for a compassionate person to end uncertainty for us all. We have been begging for help for years," asylum-seeker Milad Makvandi said.
He came to Australia by boat in early 2012 escaping Iran for his political activities as a student leader and has been on bridging visas since.
Iranian nurse Mahboobeh Mirshahi, an organiser of the Melbourne sit-in, urged for a resolution of the visa insecurity.
She left Iran with her family to escape discrimination as a religious minority and was later detained on Christmas Island for several months before being released into the community on bridging visas.
"We need a response. We request the minister of immigration to announce a definite and immediate decision for the victims of the fast track policy," she said.
Some refugee and migrant rights advocates lauded the performance of Mr Giles who has moved to the skills and training portfolio.
He has been criticised by the opposition for months after a landmark High Court decision in November ruled indefinite immigration detention unlawful and unconstitutional.
Melbourne-based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre founder Kon Karapanagiotidis described Mr Giles as "the fairest, most principled & compassionate Minister for Immigration" in more than two decades.
This message was echoed by Settlement Council of Australia chair Melissa Monteiro who noted some of Mr Giles' achievements including granting permanent protection to 19,000 asylum seekers on temporary visas and increasing Australia's humanitarian intake to 20,000 places annually.
Australian Associated Press
