Reported by Suprovat Sydney: A protest was held at Sydney’s Town Hall on Friday, 18 July at 5:30 pm to mark twelve years since the Rudd Labor government’s 2013 announcement of indefinite offshore detention—a policy that has left thousands of refugees in limbo.
Despite earlier promises of reform, the Albanese government continued to uphold the Coalition’s harsh immigration regime, including Operation Sovereign Borders and offshore processing on Nauru. Although detention on Nauru officially ended in 2022 and all detainees were transferred to Australia, the government failed to provide them with permanent protection.
While the government scrapped the deeply flawed fast track system for assessing asylum claims, most of its victims—thousands of people—remained stuck on rolling six-month bridging visas, with no pathway to permanent residency.
Adding to these concerns, the government faced sharp criticism for detaining Palestinian grandmother Maha El-Masri under a secretive ASIO-negative assessment—a process lacking transparency or appeal, and raising serious human rights concerns.
“Anthony Albanese often claims that Labor ‘won’t leave anyone behind’. But the reality is that thousands of refugees and asylum seekers have been left behind for more than a decade,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. “It is long past time to grant permanent visas to people who have been living, working, and contributing to our communities for twelve years. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
The rally called for an end to indefinite limbo and demanded permanent visas for all refugees, including fast track victims and those formerly detained on Manus and Nauru.
RALLY FOR PERMANENT VISAS
Friday, 18 July
5:30 PM
Sydney Town Hall
Speakers included:
- Amanda Cohn(NSW Greens MP)
- Milad Makvandi(Iranian refugee and fast track victim)
- Tamil and Bangladeshi fast track refugees
- Mariam Tohamy(Teachers for Palestine), who spoke on the case of Maha El-Masri and the plight of Palestinian refugees.