ADD YOUR VOICE

For more than 11 years, a group of asylum seekers has been stuck in Australia on temporary bridging visas, unable to move on with their lives.  

Over 8,400 people who arrived between 2012-2013 were failed by an unfair system, known as ‘Fast Track’, designed to make it difficult to access protection and deter people seeking asylum.

In reality it was anything but fast or fair. Marked by excessive delays, many people subjected to Fast Track waited years for outcomes. Legal assistance and interpreters were not provided, so many people were left to fill in long and complex documents in English alone. Some are still waiting on reviews or court appeals and some have still not had their application for protection considered after 11 years.  

Their lives have been put on hold. They live on bridging visas which must be renewed every 6 months. Many have worked and contributed to the Australian economy for years, whilst some do not have the right to work. They have endured long periods without Medicare and social supports, at risk of homelessness. Worst of all, they are separated from their families and unable to reunite indefinitely.  

Sign the petition and ask government to give people failed by Fast Track fair and safe pathways to permanency. 

Sign the Petition

  Our Petition
 
 
The Hon. Tony Burke MP, Minister for Home Affairs, The Hon Matt Thistlethwaite MP
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Ministers Burke and Thistlethwaite,

I am writing to express my concern and ask you to act on a group of asylum seekers that were failed by the former Coalition government’s ‘Fast Track’ system. 

Over 8,400 people failed by Fast Track have been living in Australia for more than a decade on bridging visas.  

They live in constant uncertainty and their lives are precarious. Significantly, the group have been unable to reunite with their families and still face indefinite separation.  

The Minister will be well aware of the mental health impacts on this group.  

As you know, in opposition Labor opposed the Fast Track system and vowed to abolish it. 

The government has now moved most of those on temporary protection visas to permanent ones, and established the new Administrative Review Tribunal. 

It is time to finish the job and resolve the situation for people left behind by Fast Track. Allow people to reunite with their families and have an opportunity to build their future. 

The government can and should give freedom to the people who have been trapped in uncertainty for so long, and provide them fair and safe pathways to permanency. 

I call on you to urgently act to give certainty to the people failed by Fast Track.  

Their suffering under the policies of the previous government must end now.  

Yours sincerely,
[Your name]

Add Your Voice