Afghanistan-Australian family launch legal challenge to Morrison Government’s visa delays
An Afghanistan-Australian family, which has waited over four years to be reunited in Australia, has brought a legal challenge against the Morrison Government’s unjustified family visa processing delays.
The family, represented by the Human Rights Law Centre, will argue that the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs has unreasonably delayed their reunion with no explanation for the delay.
Abdullah, who has permanent refugee protection in Australia, is desperate to bring his wife Fatema and their four children to live in safety in Australia. Their youngest daughter is just one year old. Abdullah’s family have lived in Pakistan since they were forced to flee Afghanistan after a missile attack killed one of their daughters and seriously injured another in 2012.
Fatema and her children applied for a Partner visa in 2017, but they remain in Pakistan waiting for the Australian Government to decide whether they can join Abdullah in Australia and live together as a family.
The separation has been particularly difficult as Abdullah lost his eyesight and is no longer able to work. It is not safe for the family to return to Afghanistan where they risk being persecuted or killed by the Taliban.
The delays in the Morrison Government’s broken family migration system are keeping thousands of people separated from their loved ones for years on end, including many Australians with family members from Afghanistan. Yet more than six months after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the Morrison Government has failed to take meaningful action to deal with these delays or improve family reunion pathways for Afghanistan-Australian families. The Minister’s empty announcements have not reduced the waiting times, changed the discriminatory policies or waived the unrealistic visa requirements that are keeping families apart.
This legal case may have important implications for how quickly the Australian Government is required to act to reunite people with their families from Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Abdullah, Fatema’s husband and a permanent Australian resident said:
“Being separated from my family for so long has been really hard and painful. It was so difficult for me. I miss my family a lot. Living in a new community without my family, when I have lost my eyesight, is really difficult. I have suffered a lot, and my family has suffered a lot. I hope the Australian Government understands our pain and will put us back together again.”
Abdullah’s wife Fatema, who is waiting for a family visa, said:
“Living for so many years without my husband has been difficult for me in every way you can imagine. But I have been more worried about him, because his vision is very bad. I want to take my children to be with their father in Australia so their lives will be safe from danger. We are living in a country that is not our own, and there is no future for my sons and daughters here. We are suffering every day.”
Shabnam Safa - Chair at the National Refugee-led Advisory and Advocacy Group and a member of the Afghanistan-Australian Advocacy Network, said:
“Seven months since the fall of Kabul, we are deeply concerned for members of our community like Abdullah and Fatema whose lives are put on hold and who are suffering immensely from unreasonable delays in having their family reunion applications processed by the Australian government. Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, there are thousands in Abdullah and Fatema’s shoes who have waited several years to be reunited with their families, whose future could change for the better with the stroke of a pen by the Minister, but who remain separated and stuck in limbo without justification. The empty announcements from the Minister have not translated into action or people finding safety or being reunited with their loved ones any faster. This is beyond unreasonable now, it’s immoral.”
Josephine Langbien, a Senior Lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre said:
“Like every family, Fatema and Abdullah deserve to be together and to be able to raise their children in safety. Their children should be able to play and go to school. Instead, they are struggling to survive in a dangerous situation overseas, waiting indefinitely to join their father in Australia. No one should have to go to court just to get the Australian Government to do its job, but after four years, this family still has no visas and no answers.
“Fatema and Abdullah’s situation is just one example of a widespread problem in Australia’s broken family migration system. There are families, including thousands of Afghanistan-Australian families, who are separated for years on end while the Government does nothing to process their visa applications.
“This family cannot return to Afghanistan. After twenty years of war, the Australian Government has a moral duty to the people of Afghanistan, including family members of Australians like Abdullah. The Morrison Government must do more to help these families reunite and rebuild their lives together in safety.”
Image credit: ABC
Media contact:
Michelle Bennett, 0485 864 320, michelle.bennett@hrlc.org.au