Home Affairs rejects three-quarters of Palestinian visa applications amid political furore

The Home Affairs Department rejected three out of four visa applications by Palestinians in the week the Coalition ramped up its political attack on Labor for letting people from war-torn Gaza come to Australia.

The latest figures show 13 visas were granted and 39 rejected between August 12 and 19, demonstrating that federal agencies continue to knock back the majority of applicants with Palestinian documents.

DFAT officials helping families travel to Cairo last year after leaving Gaza. The border is currently shut.

The data also shows no visas were cancelled over the seven days, suggesting the federal government has not changed its security approach despite Coalition demands. Children have made up 30 per cent of the 2935 visas now issued to people with Palestinian documents since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

Former deputy immigration secretary Abul Rizvi said neither political party had owned up to their mistakes as the issue dominated parliamentary question time all week. The Coalition has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of compromising national security while Labor has painted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton as divisive and distracted from Australians’ cost-of-living concerns.

Rizvi said the federal government had erred in issuing visitor visas to the majority of Palestinians rather than launching a humanitarian visa program as was typically done to assist people fleeing conflicts.

“It was a bad way of doing it and I hope both parties learn that’s not how you do humanitarian assistance,” he said.

But Rizvi said the Coalition’s attack, which has targeted the inappropriateness of visitor visas, was a “beat-up” in its assertions that there had been insufficient security checks.

“The Labor Party, they have gone down this path due to fear. And the Liberal Party is going down their path to promote fearmongering. I would suggest both of them develop a bit of integrity and honesty,” he said.

Continuing his attack on Labor last week, Dutton claimed in parliament that: “It’s without precedent ... that a government in our country would allow people from a war zone governed by Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation … [into] our country – frankly, even on a refugee and humanitarian program, in the current circumstance – let alone a tourist visa without the proper checks.”

The comments cast into doubt whether Dutton supported any humanitarian program for people fleeing Gaza, but when asked on Friday if the Coalition was calling for a ban on all refugees, opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said it was not.

The Coalition ramped up its attack on the Australian government’s security checks throughout the parliamentary sitting fortnight. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Rizvi, however, said the comments “showed Mr Dutton has very little understanding of history”.

“The criticism, that by issuing visitor visas we put national security at risk, is a complete beat-up. And here’s why: there has been no cohort that I can remember, in our history, that has ever been subject to more checks than this cohort,” he said, noting people had been through Israeli and Egyptian checkpoints before facing Australian Border Force checks upon arrival.

The Palestinian Authority’s delegation to Australia also issued a statement at the end of the week seeking to “clarify the truth and counter misinformation ... including the claim that individuals arriving from Gaza pose a national security risk, which are not based on any credible evidence”.

It pointed out only 1300 of people with visas had managed to arrive in Australia and said it was “important to note that visa rejections have been overwhelmingly due to the Australian government’s restrictive visa policies, not due to security concerns”.

Its survey of the 230 adults who had sought consular services showed 80 per cent of adults held an educational qualification beyond high school, while 75 per cent were Muslim and 25 per cent were Christians.

Home Affairs confirmed there had been 2935 visas granted and 7150 visas refused to Palestinians between October 7 last year and August 19 – an increase of 13 approved and 39 rejected since the previous round of data issued from August 12. Of the visas granted, 892 were to children.

A spokesperson said 43 Palestinians had their visas cancelled outside Australia “after new information came to the department’s attention after the grant of their visas” – a figure that remained unchanged during the week ending August 19.

The spokesperson confirmed that all Palestinians who were granted visas had a connection to Australia and said the country had a “layered approach” to border security.

“All persons are routinely checked multiple times along their journey to, and once they are in, Australia ... The government’s security checking procedures draw on information from a number of sources, including, but not limited to, information provided in the application form, departmental alerts, alerts from other agencies, and intelligence provided by other countries,” they said.

“It would be inappropriate to set out full details of the security checking procedures as this may jeopardise the effectiveness of the process and our ability to obtain information in the future.”

Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the federal government was once again “failing to provide clarity about what’s happening”.

Rizvi said the Home Affairs data “sounds like a very high refusal rate, but other than that it sounds like business as usual”.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. It was triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, in which militants killed about 1200 people and abducted 250 others.

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