My friend Geetha and her family are among 10, 000 refugees this government has left in cruel limbo, people who have lived in Australia for a decade or more. 

I first met Geetha, her husband Ram and their three beautiful children 8 years ago. Our kids played together as I helped her with her studies. We soon became good friends and caught up each week. I was so proud of Geetha when she gained her Cert 3 in Early Childhood and found a job in a childcare centre. 

To get this government to understand their plight, Geetha along with twenty-two women who made Australia their home after escaping danger in Sri Lanka and Iran, are walking from Melbourne to Canberra, calling for permanent visas for 10,000 people who have fallen through the cracks of the last government’s unfair “fast track” refugee system.

Here are some of their stories:

Piumetharshika 

"I arrived in Australia with my mother and sister when I was five years old. My father and brother were left behind because we left Sri Lanka as quickly as possible for safety reasons. I have been here for 12 years and last year my father passed away. I wasn't even able to see him or touch him for the last time at all. 

My sister studied at Canberra Institute of Technology but because we are labelled as international students we have to pay what an international student has to pay. We weren’t able to afford that because my mum was a single mum at the time, and she was working eight, nine hours a day with arthritis from head to toe."

Fahime

"As a Kurdish woman, my community and I have experienced war crimes for 44 years. We’ve experienced oppression by the barbaric and human rights denying regime who rule Iran. We were forced to flee Iran, in order to survive. My family, with my two children, left Iran in 2013 through the only way we were able – we risked our lives using a worn-out boat made of wood. We travelled through the cruel ocean and struggled a great deal – we eventually sought shelter in Australia and applied for asylum.

It has been 11 years since this time. We were given a work permit and used this to work and pay taxes in this great country. My husband and I are successful entrepreneurs - we registered our business in 2016. My son began working too and my daughter is a high school student. My family works hard and contributes to the community.  Please see us, hear us and save us from this painful situation. We are respectfully still waiting for a permanent visa." 

Ghazaleh 

"I am an Iranian woman. I came here when I was 14, now I am 26. I was a dental assistant for three years. Then I saved some money for uni and started a Bachelor of Health Science. After studying for one and a half years, I received a letter from the university saying that because of my visa rejection, they would not accept me anymore. I started to develop depression. The biggest fear in my life is losing my husband, who is also a refugee. He was in an immigration detention centre for two years when he first came to Australia. The heartbreak of our story has made him attempt suicide. I am one of 10,000 refugees in this terrible situation."

Our new government knows that the previous government’s unfair refugee process failed thousands of people like Geetha, Piumetharshika, Fahime and Ghazaleh.

But so far they have been denied a path to permanence, leaving thousands of men, women and children fearing they’ll be taken from their homes and forced into danger. Without permanent visas, they also live with the constant threat of losing their right to work, study and access healthcare.

They are asking for:

• Permanent visas for all refugees left in limbo for a decade
• Work and study rights for all refugees
• The abolition of the unfair “fast track” system and Immigration Assessment Authority
• Permanent settlement in Australia for all refugees evacuated from Nauru and PNG

Many Australian citizens were refugees themselves, all Geetha is asking for is a fair go. Please sign this petition.