The ongoing military assault on Gaza has made over 2 million people homeless, killed over 36,000, severely injured over 80,000 and left thousands of people with no legal place to call home.  For those trapped in Gaza, there is no safe place.  They have no clean water, inadequate food, no education or recreation, no safe healthcare and are repeatedly displaced.  They face death on a daily basis.  For those who managed to escape Gaza, they are living precarious existences in neighbouring countries where their ongoing presence is considered illegal and they do not have access to work, healthcare or education.

Yesterday we heard from Andrew Kiley, First Assistant Secretary, that ZERO Australian humanitarian visas have been given to Gazans.  He added that ‘this visa type has not been made available to Palestinians.’

Palestinians who wished to come to Australia were told to apply for tourist visitor visas, though this was then used as an excuse for visas to be denied, as the visa denials stated that the assessor ‘was not satisfied that the applicant intends to stay temporarily.’  Over 4600 visa applications from Palestinians fleeing Gaza have been denied.  Approximately 2100 have been approved, mostly those with family in Australia.   However of these 2100, only 6 have been granted bridging visas.  

In direct contrast to this, those fleeing Ukraine had a special humanitarian visa created which was allocated to 3,790 people with a further 8000 Ukrainians arriving on different visa types.  There have been 26,500 humanitarian visas reserved for those fleeing Afghanistan, and 12,000 for those arriving from Syria and Iraq.  

We demand equal treatment for Palestinian civilians, we call on the Australian government to allow Palestinians to apply for humanitarian visas and for appropriate numbers to be planned for and issued.  

We expect all declined visitor visas from Palestinians to be reassessed from a humanitarian perspective and for Australia to uphold its global responsibilities in providing refuge to the world’s most vulnerable people.  Our responsibility is even greater given our moral and material support of the military assault and subsequent destruction of Gaza and it’s infrastructure.