The Government Is Forcing Almost 100 Vulnerable Asylum Seekers Into “Destitution”
Their housing and income support payments will be cut off.
The government is moving to force another 90 asylum seekers onto the hellish bridging visa E, effectively cutting off income support and evicting them from their homes.
If that sounds profoundly cruel to you, you’re not alone — human rights advocates are calling the move “brutal”, saying it is “forcing them into destitution”.
The 90 asylum seekers in question are part of a group of people evacuated from offshore detention and brought to Australia for medical treatment or other serious issues. According to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), the group includes pregnant women, children and families, elderly people, and people still experiencing ongoing health problems.
The final departure bridging visa E designed to allow people to stay in Australia very temporarily while they arrange to leave. Being on the visa means asylum seekers’ income support payments will be cut off, and they will have three to six weeks to leave government-supported housing.
These payments weren’t even high in the first place — the ASRC notes that some of the group in community detention currently receive just 60% of the Centrelink equivalent to live on. While people on the visa will now receive work rights, this will be the first time they’ve had those, and as the ASRC put it, “they cannot find work if they are homeless”.
Next level of calculated cruelty from the Turnbull Government – forcing people transferred from Manus and Nauru to Australia for medical treatment into destitution https://t.co/21wrbt43bu
— Jana Favero (@janafavero) May 17, 2018
“These families have endured years of suffering and abuse in offshore detention and then more years of daily uncertainty in the community,” said Daniel Webb, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre.
“They just want to get on with rebuilding their lives. But instead our Government is ripping the roof from over their heads and forcing them into destitution.”
ASRC Director of Advocacy and Campaigns Jana Favero said “this is part of a larger trend of the Turnbull government removing a safety net, increasing vulnerability and forced destitution for people seeking asylum.”
“The particular circumstances of this group make them some of the most vulnerable people we have seen. Many have complex health conditions.”
You can learn more about the challenges facing asylum seekers — and how you can help them out — over at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
“The Australian government’s policy is clear – anyone who attempts to enter Australia illegally by boat will never be permitted to settle permanently in Australia,” a Home Affairs spokesperson told SBS. Junkee has contacted the Department of Home Affairs for comment.