Australia is suspending the visas of Palestinians fleeing Gaza while it investigates how they managed to cross the border into Egypt.
A number of Palestinians learned their visas had been cancelled while en route to Australia earlier this week with no immediate explanation from the home affairs department.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, confirmed the government was investigating the way in which some visa holders exited Gaza.
“If people make it out of Gaza without explanation, or their circumstances change in any meaningful way, we will take the time to understand those changes before proceeding,” the spokesperson said.
“We have made a strong commitment to assisting people who are trying to leave Gaza. But we make no apology for doing everything necessary to maintain our national security.”
The comments expand on the response provided from a spokesperson on Thursday, noting “all visa applicants undergo security checks and are subject to ongoing security assessments” and that the Australian government “reserves the right to cancel any issued visas if circumstances change”.
More than 2,000 visas have been issued to Palestinians since the conflict began in October last year but fewer than 400 have arrived in Australia in that period.
Official exit points from Gaza are limited due to the number of people attempting to leave Palestine through Rafah. Palestinians must have approval from both Israeli and Egyptian authorities to exit the besieged territory. A number have resorted to using unofficial brokers to make the journey, which is understood to have raised flags with the Australian authorities.
Guardian Australia understands those who received a visa cancellation notice on their journey can re-apply or appeal against the decision. Security agencies are understood to be undertaking additional checks to ensure the avenues taken to exit the war zone don’t affect Australia’s national security.
Much of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people are now located in the territory’s southern city after moving south when Israeli forces began air and ground assaults in the territory’s north.
Palestinians in the area are growing increasingly desperate to leave as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to move forward with his ground invasion of Rafah, which he has described as the “last Hamas stronghold”.
The Australian federal government has previously said it is “extremely limited” in its ability to offer help to those stuck in Gaza.
Many of the visas issued so far to Palestinians are for visiting purposes, meaning the recipients can not work or access Australian healthcare, and last for up to 12 months.
Groups involved with supporting Palestinians desperately trying to flee the conflict say the foreign affairs department advised them to apply for the subclass 600 visa.
On Tuesday, Samah Sabawi, the co-founder of Palestine Australia Research Action, claimed Palestinians in Cairo with valid visas had tried to get on flights to Australia but were informed their visas had been cancelled.
Sabawi’s group has been organising flights to Australia for those who have managed to cross the border into Egypt.
Sabawi said the visa holders were told their visas had been cancelled because they did not “intend for their visit to be temporary”.
“The reason given is disingenuous dishonest and callous: that Aus doesn’t think they intend for their visit to be temporary,” she said on X/Twitter.
“We are devastated beyond imagining. Trying to pick up the pieces of the mess your government is leaving behind.”
The opposition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, criticised the Albanese government for creating “endless chaos” around the issuing of the visas.
“We have been critical all along of the speed with which visas appear to have been given, and questioned whether appropriate security checks could have been undertaken on individuals coming out of Gaza,” he said on Friday.
“Australia needs to be making sure that we are not importing potential terrorist sympathisers into this country.”
The head of Asio, Mike Burgess, told Guardian Australia in March his agency had not been pressured by the government to speed up the security checks of anyone applying for visas from Gaza.
“If we have grounds to say that we are going to impact [an] individual, we have to have the evidence and that’s subject to a rigorous assessment. It can’t just be, ‘I feel … there’s a bit of doubt, so we’ll do it.’ We don’t work that way.”
A Guardian investigation earlier this year revealed brokers are making thousands of dollars in fees from desperate Palestinians who are trying to exit the territory through the Egyptian border crossing in Rafah.
Additional reporting by Daniel Hurst
