Key points
- Hundreds of asylum seekers recently protested the new RoS visa announcement.
- An estimated 12,000 asylum seekers living in Australia will not qualify for the fast-tracked permanent residency pathway.
- The El Saadany family do not qualify for the RoS despite having arrived in Australia by sea as refugees in 2012.
An announcement by federal Immigration Minister, Andrew Giles, in mid-February, paved the way for an .
Only temporary protection (TPV) and safe haven enterprise (SHEV) visa holders, who arrived before Operation Sovereign Borders began on September 18, 2013, are permitted to apply.
The decision precludes an estimated 12,000 asylum seekers living in Australia on either short-term bridging visas or without visas at all.
Zainab's mother, Karima Al Mizidawi, was one of the outside Parliament House in Canberra to demand a solution to the situation of the 12,000 asylum seekers who do not qualify for the RoS visa.
Karima Al Mizidawi with Senator Janet Rice at a protest outside Parliament House.
She said she and her husband, Haidar El Saadany, and their two oldest children arrived in Australia by sea in 2012.
Zainab, their youngest child, was born in Australia nine years ago.
The family fled war-torn Iraq in 2012, ending up in Indonesia, where they boarded a people-smuggling boat bound for Australia, which was intercepted at sea by the Royal Australian Navy.
The family was sent to Christmas Island for processing before being transferred to Manus Island, Ms Al Mizidawi said.
They were later moved to a detention centre in Darwin, before being settled in Melbourne in 2014, under the government's 'community detention' scheme, she said.
The family have been living in Australia on subclass 050 visas, also known as Bridging visas E, ever since and Ms Al Mizidawi claimed they had their applications for asylum rejected "continuously" on the basis that they were deemed as not genuine refugees.
“I am surprised that the government is leaving families in limbo. My oldest daughter got a scholarship to study at university and she works and pays taxes. My son is also studying at university, working and paying taxes,” she said.
As for Zainab, she is studying in the third grade of primary school and is deprived of all rights. She is not an Iraqi or an Australian. She has no official papers.Karima Al-Mazidawi
Ms Al Mizidawi said the family felt "marginalised" and as if it had "fallen through the cracks".
“No one knows about us. I don't know the reasons why our requests were rejected. I can't return to Iraq because of the circumstances we fled from, and they still exist," she said.
She said if it wasn't for charitable organisations such as the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, her family would be homeless.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs told SBS Arabic24: "The permanent RoS visa is available for those who held or applied for a TPV or SHEV before 14 February 2023 (regardless of how they arrived), most of whom have been living in Australia temporarily for almost a decade."
"The government is focused on providing those who engage Australia’s protection obligations a chance to continue their lives in Australia with certainty and security," the spokesperson added.
"It will empower TPV and SHEV holders to move forward with their lives - to more fully contribute to Australia, gain secure employment, grow businesses, study more easily, sponsor eligible family members under the family stream of the Migration Program to Australia and pursue a pathway to Australian citizenship."
The spokesperson said people who did not engage protection obligations, who were not awaiting a merits or judicial review outcome, and who had exhausted all avenues to remain in Australia, were expected to depart Australia voluntarily and might be provided assistance to depart.
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