Australia: Hundreds of Refugees Protest Outside Parliament

By Staff, Agencies

Hundreds of protesters rallied outside Australia's Parliament House on Monday, aiming to highlight the uncertain futures of many refugees since the government replaced permanent protection visas with temporary visas.

The protesters were from Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Somalia and included Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. Most of them were in Australia on three-year visas or five-year visas that are available to refugees who agree to live outside the major cities.

Such refugees lose their visas if they wanted to return to their homelands to visit family.

The temporary visas were introduced when the conservative government was first elected in 2013 as a way of deterring asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat. Refugees who do not arrive by boat are entitled to permanent protection visas.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declined to meet a delegation of protesters led by Iraqi Council Melbourne president Samir Kafaji in Parliament House. But two lawmakers from the opposition Labor Party, which opposes temporary visas, agreed to speak to the delegates.

The government toughened its policy against boat arrivals in 2013, banning any asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by water from ever settling there.

The boats have since all but stopped, after arriving at a rate of more than one a day.

Those arriving by boat since 2013 have been banished to immigration camps in the poor Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where hundreds still languish.