Dear Colleague,

Just over 100 days after the Federal election, many are asking: What now is the state of refugee policy in our country?

What’s clear is that the deterrence agenda underpins it.

As it stands, key elements of the Federal Government’s legislative and policy agenda seem likely to continue. They’re driven by exclusionary and punitive measures, and systemic and severe violations of basic rights and freedoms.  This is likely to continue to inflict wide-scale injustice and harm, both offshore and here.

For anyone in doubt, one only need look at the fate of the Biloela Tamil family - denied the right to stay, and now exiled to prison-like conditions on Christmas Island – thousands of kilometres away from many who have cared for and supported them – and from a nation that has, it seems, embraced them. This is the human face of the Australian Government’s deterrence agenda laid bare. A single act of compassion and basic decency to let them stay is denied due to an alleged risk that – somehow – an armada of boats could descend on our shores.

In reality, we are seeing situations like this every day. And every day, we continue to fight for justice for people in these kind of predicaments.

Across the country, unmet legal need for people seeking asylum, refugees and vulnerable migrants is endemic, unprecedented and escalating.

Offshore, an unprecedented humanitarian crisis only deepens, with health and hope of those held for over six years of cruel limbo deteriorating dangerously.  Onshore, there is a slow-motion crisis for 31,000 people still in legal limbo - deprived of the ability to rebuild their lives with a sense of safety and security together with us. Thousands of people still awaiting the first decision on their refugee case after arriving seven years ago. And those already granted temporary protection, now having to re-plead their case for at best, another three or five-year visa. [See further below]

For those seeking our help in ever-increasing numbers, the systemic injustices they confront are complex and grave. Amongst them are people facing destitution after being stripped of their basic income support, housing and trauma counselling while seeking protection; women and their children seeking protection from family violence; people being detained indefinitely, including due to ‘character’-based visa cancellation; and people battling for family reunion after years of separation.  And, people facing deportation without before being allowed to apply for protection – unless they can get to a lawyer in time.

To this end, there was another telling reminder of the impact of our legal work just last week. We urgently intervened to ensure that a man from a Gulf State, on the verge of being deported to feared danger could stay and apply for protection here. And since February, we have played an instrumental role, in partnership, to assist with the medical evacuation of more than 130 people from Manus and Nauru. [See further below]

In the face of these injustices, we will continue to defend to the end the rights and lives of the thousands of people who seek our help. We will do this through direct legal action for many, strategic litigation, and fearlessly advocating for change.


Yours sincerely,

David Manne
Executive Director & Principal Solicitor
Refugee Legal

Medevac Laws