By Casey Neill
Hundreds of migrants are in limbo and battling depression over years-long delays on Australian Citizenship applications, a Dandenong South forum has heard.
The Omid Cultural Association hosted the event at the Russian Community Centre on Saturday 25 February, which was attended by almost 350 people.
The group’s president, Hayat Rahimi, spoke about the positive and constructive contribution of refugees to the Australian community and said delays in the citizenship application process were unjust and unfair.
Refugee Council of Australia policy officer Asher Hirsch, Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus and Bruce MP Julian Hill also addressed the crowd.
“We were overwhelmed by the number of people who recounted their stories and the human impact of these unconscionable delays in processing citizenship,” Mr Hill said.
“People were very courageous talking about their depression from living their life in limbo for two years, three years.”
He said they had called the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for explanations and received no response.
Many spoke about being unable to travel because they could not get a passport, he said, and how they couldn’t visit family members in times of need.
Mr Hill said a civil engineering student couldn’t complete his course because he needed to travel to Malaysia to finish his international studies unit and couldn’t get a passport.
“It really brought it home to us that this really wasn’t about boat people or refugees in camps,” he said.
“It’s about people working for five, seven, 10 years in some cases in Australia.”
Mr Hill said that many were members of the persecuted Hazara minority from Afghanistan.
“The Federal Court of Australia in December found ‘unreasonable delays’ in the case of two men … and the court now could not rule out the possibility that a certain class of people were being picked on in mysterious ways,” he said.
He said there were more than 10,000 delayed cases, which were deemed complex, and only 12 people processing them.
On her Facebook page, Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams said she recently spoke to a 21-year-old biomedical science student and part-time worker who came to Australia five years ago.
He passed his citizenship test almost a year ago but hasn’t been allowed to take his oath of citizenship.
“I know others who’ve waited up to three years,” she said.
A Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesperson said there’d been a recent significant increase in citizenship applications.
At 31 December last year there were 66,652 applications for Citizenship by Conferral being processed.
The spokesperson said applicants must meet legislative criteria including passing the Australian citizenship test, having basic English, being of good character, and maintaining residence or a close and continuing association with Australia.
“Circumstances specific to individual applications may have an effect on the actual processing time, which may take less, or more time to process than indicated,” the spokesperson said.
“For example, additional checks and further assessment may be required for applicants who have limited or no identity documentation from their country of origin, or who have changed their identity information since being granted a visa.”
