Support the call for a pathway to permanency for refugees in Australia who were on Nauru and Manus Island
There are approximately 700 “transitory” refugees living throughout Australia who do not have pathways to permanency. They have already suffered when they were sent to Nauru before being sent for medical reasons to Australia. Now they live in limbo and they need our support and advocacy, although many have been our neighbours for up 13 years. They cannot return to their home country and there are no longer other options to accept invitations to Canada or New Zealand. No way forward and no way back and yet many have been our neighbours for up to 13 years.
They are the victims of the Rudd Labor government’s decision that any people who arrived in Australian waters by boat after the arbitrary date of July 19, 2013 would never gain permanency in Australia. The government refers to this group of people as “transitory”. There is nowhere else for them to go.
The situation in this YouTube developed by the University of NSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law was made in 2022. Now in 2026, the situation has not changed. https://www.youtube.com/@unswkaldorcentreforinterna4813
Advocates across Australia such as Justice for Refugees SA, Australian Refugee Advocay Network (ARAN), Permanency and family Reunion, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) and the Refugee Council of Australia are calling for the 700 or so people to be granted a pathway to permanency. In South Australia, we have people in this transitory group who have been waiting in limbo for up to 13 years. You can take action by either contacting your local Member of Parliament contacting your local Member of Parliament from the ASRC site.
The plight of these people, living in limbo, has gained widespread publicity over the last months, with an article in The Guardian, followed by a recent interview with a young 17-year-old woman, Ailin, on Channel 9’s A Current Affair. I’m asking you to show your support by signing a petition calling on Tony Burke to give around 700 people like me a permanent future.
Grant them the right to undertake tertiary study while they wait:
In addition to living with the uncertainty of short-term Bridging Visas, young people like Ailin, and others who live in the South Australian community, do not have the right to undertake tertiary study in Australia. This is a right that all other people in Australia have. In your advocacy, please argue for the short-term goal of tertiary study rights while we await justice for their permanency in Australia.
It is not an easy task for people to share the trauma they experienced in both seeking asylum in Australia by boat and in their offshore detention in Nauru. We can all support them by letting our local ALP MPs know that they should argue for a pathway for permanency with the Minister for Immigration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, the Honorable Tony Burke.
Members of the Justice for Refugees SA Management Committee and other advocates will be working with people from this transitory group who were medevac’d from Nauru to visit their local Commonwealth Members of Parliament to personally advocate for a pathway to permanency.