Six refugees have been granted visas in Australia, but far from October Human Rights News

Six other refugees have been granted visas in Australia and have been released from immigration detention, while being granted temporary release while staying in a third country or struggling to find more permanent housing.

The Department of the Interior issued visas to six men, five of whom were in a Melbourne detention facility at the Park Hotel, which became a site for COVID-19 infections.

A sixth refugee was held in a separate detention center in Brisbane.

All six were released with a special visa category, which allowed them to stay in Australia temporarily while making arrangements to leave the country. They had previously been held in Pacific detention centers and doctors were evacuated to Australia in 2019.

Visas issued are not a permanent way to relocate to Australia. But when they expire, refugees can ask for an extension.

One of the refugees, Jeeva, told Al Jazeera that he was still shocked to learn of her release. Her name has been changed to protect her privacy.

“[Wednesday] in the afternoon [at] I knew it for an hour, ”he recalled. “They just told me [that] ‘approved the Minister [my visa] so we will set you up [free]. ‘”

It took Jeevar 45 minutes to pack up before moving to Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) to pick up the rest of his belongings, and he finally landed at a hotel.

Freedom of “words cannot be described”, he said, is finally able to breathe fresh air and walk without security guards.

“I will eat my traditional food,” Jeeva said, adding that she could not prepare food from Sri Lanka during her detention.

“Easier to release them”

The timing of the release could not have been a coincidence, according to lawyer Noeline Balasanthiran Harendran. Harendran and colleague Daniel Taylor, who represented six refugees.

A similar situation occurred in November, then Harendran and Taylor’s three clients were also given a bridge visa, a few days before the hearings.

Harendran said in both cases it was easier for the government to issue a visa to Medevac refugees than to respond to the arguments presented by him and Taylor.

The whole case is based on a simple requirement of international law to assess the security of the Australian government’s return of refugees to regional processing countries: Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and Nauru.

All of the released refugees were previously held in the famous processing system in the Australian Pacific region, before being taken to land in Australia, according to Medevac, according to a short-term medical evacuation scheme.

They were at risk of being reinstated in the regional proceedings, which they considered to be a very dangerous system, so they demanded the right to a non-return assessment before the transfer. Refusal is the act of forcibly returning refugees to a country where they may be subjected to persecution.

This assessment is a requirement under the 1951 Australian Refugee Convention, Harendran explained.

“If a person is afraid for their life, we need to give them an assessment,” he said.

“Procedural assessment, where my client is given a safe and secure method of speaking, where he is legally represented, where he has an interpreter, and where there is a judicial review.”

Instead, the government issued visas to six refugees.

‘Elephant in the room’

The elephant in the room, Harendran said, is what these notes say about the government’s reliance on regional processing.

“Clearly, there’s a problem with regional processing if you don’t want to do non-refundable assessments,” Harendran said.

If a non-refundable assessment is also conducted and Nauru and PNG are considered safe for that person, he said it could mean the end of the regional processing.

“[It] Nauru and PNG would not be a safe place to send our refugees, ”he said.

For now, just freedom

But in the near future, Harendran said, the goal is just to get freedom for the rest of the customers.

He and Taylor are preparing another series of cases to be filed next month with the same argument.

Meanwhile, 75 of the Medevac refugees arrested in the regional trial are on dry land in Australia, but are still behind bars.

A refugee still detained at the Mehdi Ali Park Hotel was in tears when he remembered one of the refugees released on Wednesday when he left.

“I said, ‘What’s wrong? Don’t cry, man,’ I hugged and said, ‘Don’t cry, just go out … go ahead and don’t look back [you], ” he said.

The refugee replied to Ali that he could not be happy with his freedom while the people were still inside.

Mehdi said that those left behind can only suffer.

Another refugee, Amin Afravi, who is detained at the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation and Fraser Compound (BITA) residence, said she could still “feel” the pain of her fellow refugees behind the carts.

“People really feel bad,” he said. “When they see someone released and they are arrested for no reason, there is no explanation.”

‘People are slowly dying’

Al Jazeera contacted the Interior Ministry about the six refugees released on Wednesday, but a department spokesman said “the department does not comment on individual cases.”

“Australian government policies have not changed and illegal shipping will not be established in Australia.

“Transition assistance is provided to people who have been released from immigration detention through the State Response Assistance Services program, including staff assistance, accommodation, and financial assistance.”

Meanwhile, activists are still demanding the release of all Medevac refugees like Mehdi and Amin who remain inside the immigration detention center.

Ian Rintoul, a political activist and spokesman for the Coalition for Refugee Action, said that “although the releases are welcome,” the lack of an explanation exacerbates anxiety and stress levels for those left behind.

“It’s okay to release six more, it’s okay to release all the others, there’s really no justification for holding people back more,” he said.

For now, Amin said he is “trying to survive” by focusing on what he can control.

“People are slowly dying in custody,” he said.

“If you lose your mind, there is nothing in this world [that] you can return your mind. And people are losing their minds[s]. So what’s the difference between a dead person, a dead person and someone [who has] have you lost your mind? “