The Age & Sydney Morning Herald | Matthew Knott| 19 March 2024
Sadly the office of Penny Wong refuses to engage with Australian Christian Organisations requesting that people with visa’s be put on the list to leave Gaza – there are more than 50 families stuck in southern Gaza with visa’s but unable to pay a local bribe to get on the list whilst this Government refuses them help – Mark
Palestinian advocates are urging the Albanese government to grant the same visa rights to people fleeing the war in Gaza as Ukrainians received after Russia’s invasion.
Palestinians left devastated when their visas were cancelled as they travelled to Australia are again en route after the Home Affairs Department reinstated their travel permits on the weekend.
Palestinians fleeing the war are eligible to apply for subclass 600 visitor visas, which let them spend up to a year in the country visiting family or friends but do not allow them to work or access Medicare. They can then apply for a bridging visa after 12 months if they believe it is not safe to return to Gaza.
The same situation applies to displaced Israelis who live near the border with Gaza or Lebanon.
Between February and July 2022, Ukrainians fleeing the war with Russia were granted access to a three-year humanitarian visa that allowed them to work, study and access Medicare.
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said with the war in Gaza now in its sixth month, ‘‘we’re still not seeing our government extend the same urgency, support or level of care to Palestinians that it so rightfully offered to Ukrainians and others fleeing recent humanitarian catastrophes’’.
Mashni said the government needed to be consistent in its handling of visas. ‘‘In the Ukrainian case, for instance, the Australian government recognised the urgency and desperate need for swift action, and supported more than 11,000 Ukrainians to arrive in Australia within the first five months of Russia’s violence,’’ he said.
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