Nine more refugees who have been detained for several years have been released from Melbourne’s Park hotel, however those freed remain uncertain about whether they will be allowed to permanently live in Australia.
On Friday night, the refugees were unexpectedly informed of their release. They were not given any reason for the change in their situation, according to the Refugee Action Collective, which criticised the Australian Border Force for releasing the men “after close of business Friday to minimise media scrutiny”.
There are understood to be 18 refugees who remain in the Park hotel – where the world No 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic was detained before being deported from Australia in January.
In addition to the nine men released from the Park hotel – where refugees have been detained for years after being medically evacuated from offshore detention facilities – three men were released from the Brisbane detention centre and one from the Broadmeadows detention centre in Melbourne.
Mohammed “Joy” Miah, a 41-year-old refugee from Bangladesh who had been in the Park hotel for more than two years and was first detained on Christmas Island after seeking asylum in 2013, received the news he was being released during evening prayers on Friday.
“It was big news for me. After so many years I finally have my freedom, I am a free man right now,” he told the Guardian.
“I am happy, but I am also nervous about what my status will be. I didn’t sleep last night. I am also worried for those who still remain in the hotel,” he said.
Miah said he wanted to thank his lawyers, as well as authorities involved in his release, and said he hoped to be able to meet his supporters and celebrate with friends. “It will also be great to be able to go for a swim,” he said.
He said he was now in a motel in the city and that the ABF told him they would tell him his new status on Thursday. He said he had been given some food, including noodles and potatoes, but no money.
Others released had been put up in a suburban motel in Melbourne’s west, according to the Refugee Action Collective, which said they had been given $150 while waiting to hear their final status.
Earlier this month, longtime detainee and vocal advocate for those inside the Park hotel, Iranian Mehdi Ali, was released after nine years in detention to be flown to be resettled in the US.
Chris Breen, a spokesman for the Refugee Action Collective, welcomed the release of the 13 men but said they had been “wrongly held for almost nine years” and “should never have been detained”.
“It is increasingly cruel, arbitrary and absurd to continue to detain the remaining medevac refugees. They must be immediately freed,” he said.
Breen said there were around 50 people in similar detention circumstances nationally.
He said eight of those released had been given bridging visas, one had been given community detention, and the others were unclear.
Guardian Australia contacted the ABF to clarify the status of those released, however a spokesperson said the department could not comment on individual cases.
The Australian government’s policies had not changed and illegal maritime arrivals would not be settled in Australia.
While not confirming the visa status of those released, the spokesperson noted that final departure bridging visas allowed holders to reside lawfully in Australia while they make arrangements to depart the country.
The visa does not provide a pathway to settlement in Australia.
Breen said that while the bridging visas by definition did not allow holders to live in Australia permanently, because a resettlement agreement with the US had been exhausted and the lack of other resettlement deals, holders would likely be allowed to stay longer than the duration of the visa.
He said some refugees in Australia from Nauru on six-month bridging visas “are still in Australia five years later”.
“The government doesn’t want to admit that people are effectively resettling here, but that’s what we think is happening … because what’s the third country they can go to?” Breen said.
Hossain Latifi is one of the 18 that remain in the Park hotel. “We have committed no crime, our detention is inhuman, there is no justice,” the 32-year-old Iranian said.
