More than a thousand refugees and their supporters from around the country are expected to rally outside Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday 29 November, 11am, to demand permanent visas.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four buses are leaving Sydney for the rally on Tuesday morning and one bus from Melbourne is leaving at 9pm Monday night to arrive in Canberra for the rally on Tuesday. Hundreds of other refugees are traveling by car to Canberra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 31,000 refugees and people seeking asylum have been surviving for up to nine years and more, on temporary protection or bridging visas. Others are eking out an existence in the community on expired visas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Labor came to office promising to grant permanent visas to all refugees on temporary TPV or SHEVs and to scrap the fast track assessment system that has seen around 10,000 refugee applications rejected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Labor is now allowing refugees on TPVs to travel, but that\u2019s all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saajeda, an Afghan refugee, co-chairing the rally, asked, \u201cWhy must we keep begging the Australian Government to give us safety and permanent protection? It is very clear that refugees from Afghanistan, and other places like Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Iran cannot return to live safely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Labor has also turned a deaf ear to refugees brought to Australia from Nauru and PNG, ignoring the torture inflicted on them offshore and the fact that many now have jobs and families in Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zahra, one of the speakers at the rally said, “The refugees sent to Nauru and Manus have been punished for a\u00a0decade for seeking Australia’s protection. Offshore refugees have been denied protection just because of the date we arrived. Some people who\u00a0arrived after 19 July 2013 weren’t sent offshore and will soon get\u00a0permanent visas. Labor’s policy towards us is like a cruel lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Priya Nadesalingam\u00a0from the Home to Bilo campaign will also be speaking at the rally.\u00a0Tamil asylum seekers, Priya, Nades and two daughters were denied protection visas under the fast track system, and were threatened with deportation by the Morrison Liberal government. Labor granted the family permanent visas just two months after Labor was elected.\u00a0 Priya is lending her voice to stand with thousands of others in need of permanent protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Nine years is enough torture and uncertainty,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, \u201cCruel, heartless and hypocritical refugee policies have to end. Labor said no one would be left behind, but six months after the election thousands of refugees and asylum seekers are still waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo one left behind; Permanent Visas for All\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Rally<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11am, 29 November, Parliament House Canberra<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Speakers include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n MCs – Hassan (Iranian, TPV), Saajeda Samaa (Afghan refugee)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sajeda Bahadurmia and Asma Khan from the Rohingya community<\/p>\n\n\n\n Narges Kiani far \u2013 Iranian refugee from Nauru on bridging visa<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mohammad Hakim – Hazara refugee<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zahra Hashemi – Iranian mother – family was held on Nauru<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamid Elkaie\u2013 Iranian refugee on Nauru, separated from his family in Australia<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renuga Inpakumar and 11 yo Tamil boy<\/p>\n\n\n\n Irfan Ali – Qaim community advocate for fast track rejections<\/p>\n\n\n\n Priya Nadesalingam, Home to Bilo campaign<\/p>\n\n\n\n Media contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hassan Jaber speaker\/MC at the rally 0401 310 310<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saajeda Samaa speaker\/MC at the rally 0455 660 302<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ian Rintoul Refugee Action Coalition, Sydney 0417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 1000 refugees will rally outside Parliament House in Canberra to demand permanent visas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":16579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-press-releases"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/311091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}