‘Temporary will mean years’: Questions raised how many Palestinians on temporary visas will return home

Palestinians who were granted temporary visas in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks have begun making asylum applications.

Palestinians who were granted temporary visas in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks have begun making asylum applications, raising questions about how many of the more than 2000 permitted to enter Australia will ever return home.

Department of Home Affairs figures released this month show that 88 Palestinians in Australia lodged asylum claims in February, on top of the 33 who lodged applications in January.

This after a 15-year period in which not a single asylum application from a Palestinian was made in Australia.

When it was revealed in November that the Albanese government had granted 860 visas to Palestinians since the Hamas attack on Israel, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stressed they were not being settled in Australia, saying “these are not permanent visas, these are temporary visas”.

Anthony Albanese, in November, stressed “these are not permanent visas”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

By December the number of visas granted had grown to 2272 according to information provided to parliament, though Government sources say the numbers who have been able to travel to Australia was “in the hundreds”.

Another 160 visitor visa ­applications from Palestinians were rejected – 150 of them ­because it was determined the applicants did not intend to stay temporarily.

But the upsurge in asylum claims have raised questions about how many of the Palestinians allowed into Australia will ever leave.

Shadow immigration spokesman Dan Tehan. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

According to research by academics at the UNSW it takes around 2.4 years for Home Affairs to make a decision on a protection claim and another 3.6 years to have rejected claims heard in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

If the application is again rejected there it can take another five years for appeals to be dealt with by the courts.

During that time the applicants will be on a bridging visa, which gives them the right to work. Even if the claims are rejected after a decade there is little chance of them being deported, with only 14 failed asylum seekers being removed from Australia last year.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the public had been misled.

“The government promised these people were coming on a temporary basis,” he said.

“Now we learn that temporary will mean years because the government has proven incapable of removing people if their claims fail.”

He also said there were “grave concerns about the security checks that were undertaken before they were allowed to travel, since in Senate estimates we learned in some cases security checks were done in less than 24 hours.”

“This is more gross incompetence from ministers Giles and O’Neil,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Andrew Giles said all non-citizens who wish to enter or remain in Australia must satisfy the requirements of their visa, as well as the requirements of the ­Migration Act and Regulations, including identity, health, security and character requirements.

“Peter Dutton and his ­Liberal mates have no leg to stand on when it comes to visa integrity and immigration compliance,” she said.

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