Breaking: first step towards reuniting thousands of refugee families
NEWS UPDATE | Rights of Refugees & People Seeking Asylum
The Albanese Government has abolished Ministerial Direction 80, a policy which intentionally denied thousands of people fleeing persecution the basic human right to live in safety with their families.
By Josephine Langbien
Senior Lawyer
Human Rights Law Centre
Families belong together. Yet for years, Australia has kept thousands of refugee families apart as a cruel deterrence measure.
Yesterday, the Albanese Government abolished Ministerial Direction 80, a policy which intentionally denied thousands of people fleeing persecution the basic human right to live in safety with their families.
Over 3,000 families have been kept apart by the policy, with almost 1,000 waiting since 2013. Lives were put on hold, parents missed out on seeing their children grow up. These families will never get those years back.
The vast majority of people impacted are Afghanistan-Australian families like Ismail Hussaini’s. Ismail worked with the Australian Army in Afghanistan as an interpreter and sought refuge in Australia. This policy has prevented him from reuniting with his wife and daughter for almost a decade.
“I found safety here, but I have been waiting more than nine years to bring my wife here. My baby daughter was born nearly two years ago and I cannot be with her. It’s really good news that this policy is gone, but there are so many families like mine who are still waiting. There are people on temporary visas who still don’t have any hope. We just want to be together with our families and see our children grow up.”
– Ismail Hussaini
We have advocated for years for fairer migration policies, including the end of Direction 80. This is a necessary first step towards reuniting people with their loved ones.
But Direction 80 is not the only tool the Government is using to keep families apart. The government has not delivered on its promise to give permanent residency to thousands of people on temporary protection visas. And families continue to be divided between Australia and offshore detention, with no end in sight.
We will keep applying pressure on the Albanese Government to build a new migration system. A system that no longer keeps people separated from their partners or children through the use of temporary protection visas, unreasonable delays and offshore processing.
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Acknowledgement of Country
The Human Rights Law Centre acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands across Australia, including the lands of the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Gadigal, Ngunnawal, Cammeraygal, Darug, Wadawurrung, Turrbal and Jagera people where we work from.
We pay our respect to Elders past and present. This land always was, and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
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