Fifty-one asylum seekers who were brought to Australia for medical treatment continue to languish in detention in Australia, including 18 in the Park hotel in Melbourne, with no indication of when they might be released, according to a prominent refugee support group.
Their ongoing detention comes despite a string of recent releases, including high-profile campaigner and Iranian refugee Mehdi Ali, who was allowed to resettle in the US two weeks ago.
Last week a group of nine men were allowed to leave the Park hotel, located in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton, and eight will now wait in the community while they organise to leave Australia.
Their freedom has advocates questioning the seemingly “random” way some of the refugees are allowed to leave, while others are left indefinitely detained.
It is very hard to get accurate numbers on the number of people still detained under the medevac laws, but figures provided by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre show about 206 people have been released – to other countries or allowed to live on bridging visas in the community. No one is sure why some are granted freedom and others still languish inside.
Of the 51 people left in detention, most of them are men – there is only one woman. They come from a broad range of countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran. Some came to Australia when they were teenagers and have now spent almost nine years locked up.
All of them have been deemed by the government to pose no security threat.
While the government won’t ever provide the exact number of people stuck in detention, the ASRC director of advocacy and campaigns, Jana Favero, said since 2017 around 206 have been released and they have not been able to determine why.
“Of those, some have gone to the US, some are waiting to go to the US but the majority are in the community,” Favero said.
“There is no common thread between those who are in detention and those who are in the community.
“The fact that the government have released 206 and left 51 in there shows it’s a form of cruelty.”
They are not allowed to resettle permanently in Australia but other counties including the US, Canada and New Zealand have offered to take them, Favero said.
“While everyone who is still in detention is thrilled for their brothers when they get released, it compounds the situation that they’ve been left behind,” she said.
The minister for home affairs, Karen Andrews, was asked recently why the refugees were still stuck in the hotel when they pose no risk.
She said some had not been released because of character or health reasons. Andrews said the Coalition government, which has been in power since 2013, was still dealing with the backlog from Labor.
“What we have committed to as a government is to work to make sure that as many of those people are resettled as we can possibly manage in the shortest possible amount of time,” Andrews said.
‘Here, your life is dead. Nothing’
After fleeing Iran, Hossein Latifi came on a boat to Australia in 2013. He said the majority on board were released into the community, while he was sent to Nauru with a handful of others.
He is still in contact with his friends who have spent the last seven years living in the community.
“We came at the same time,” Latifi said, who has spent the last six months in the Park hotel. There is no fresh air, and many of them have insomnia so they sleep during the day.
He passes the time watching people outside his window and listening to songs.
“I listen to songs, but I get tired of even that. Mentally we are sick. It’s unbelievable to stay in this situation for a long time.
“If you live in the community you have more opportunity, you can study and go to the gym, you can have a coffee with a friend or lunch or dinner. Here, your life is dead. Nothing.”
Sometimes campaigner Tom Hardman calls him. Hardman goes down every Friday night to photograph someone new in a cage outside the hotel. They’ve had the big names of human rights activism: Craig Foster, Adam Bandt and Tim Costello.
Hardman says it’s sometimes hard to speak to the men stuck inside.
“I try to keep in regular contact, but it’s hard to know what to say. What do you say to someone who has had everything stripped away from them?”
Alison Battisson, a lawyer and the CEO of Human Rights for All, has helped three men leave Australia in the last year, including Ali.
They were all children when they arrived in the country, she said.
“But the government deemed it appropriate to detain them and charge the taxpayer $10m, which could be good to give to nurses, or the SES or in fact anyone else.
“Instead of the Park hotel, Serco, they are private companies, some individuals are getting hugely rich from abusing human rights.”
She said it’s hard to get people out, but it can be done. The government fights them every step of the way.
“We have identified safe third countries, and the government is fighting us on it. We’re in court, it’s the ultimate pushback.”
Salah Abdul Kareem fled Iraq with his son in 2013. He had worked with the US army in Afghanistan and says the Taliban were threatening him with his life.
“The situation was very bad. I had worked with the American army, my last job was in the ministry of oil, the terrorists killed my brother in 2007.”
Abdul Kareem left his wife and younger son, thinking he would make the journey and they could join him later. He has been in detention ever since.
“I’m very tired. I’ve lost family. My son, he was 14 years old when we left, he’s 24 now. He has gone without schools and education.”
The pair recently spent six months in the Park hotel, before they were moved to the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation in Broadmeadows.
“What can I say? For my wife, nine years, we don’t have anything except waiting. Some people were waiting for one month. I’ve lost nine years. About me no problem, but my son he’s young.”
