On 11 May, 2023 it will be three months since Hamid, an Iranian refugee, was brought to Australia from Nauru. He was promised that he would be released from detention in Australia, and asked whether he wanted a bridging visa or community detention.

In the Meriton, he has been held in an individual room, 24 hours a day. All meals are eaten in his room. He sometimes is taken to the Brisbane detention centre (BITA) for just one hour’s exercise a day.

Fifteen other refugees from Nauru were released from the Merion on 4 May.

But not Hamid.

It’s time to end the torture. Hamid had been on Nauru for almost nine years before he was brought to Australia. Since 2019, he has been cruelly separated from his two adult children when Peter Dutton refused to allow Hamid to come with them to Australia under the Medevac laws.

His son was released from hotel detention in Victoria in 2020. His daughter is now in the US.  

We call on Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to immediately release Hamid from hotel detention.