South Africans’ plea: bring our families to Australia

Peter Dutton has received a written request to fast-track a special quota of persecuted South African farmers.

Arno Nel with his wife Yolandi at home in Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Peter Dutton has received a written request to fast-track a special quota of persecuted South African farmers and faces a broader push to overhaul existing visa rules to allow Australian residents to bring in family members from overseas if their lives are in jeopardy.

The Australian has also been informed by several government MPs that the Home Affairs Minister was present at informal talks following a partyroom meeting on March 27 in which some MPs discussed options to take between 5000 and 10,000 persecuted South African farmers.

West Australian Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, who has thrown his support behind a special ­humanitarian intake of persec­uted South Africans, yesterday forwarded to Mr Dutton a letter written on behalf of South ­Africans living in Australia.

The letter urged the government to “fast-track the immigration of South African farmers to Australia on humanitarian and protection visa programs”. It also welcomed Mr Dutton’s previous comments on the plight of farmers who claim their land is being expropriated without compensation and who are suffering targeted and brutal attacks.

The letter, written by community spokesman Arno Nel, whose own parents were attacked in Pretoria five years ago, calls on the government to make broader changes to the visa system in ­addition to providing humanitarian assistance to families still living in South Africa.

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“The Australian government should be aware that many Australian citizens with South African heritage have families that are in constant danger,” the letter says. “We hope that Australia will extend the privilege of living in Australia to those families of Australian citizens who are facing this danger, by creating a family visa that is low-cost and not subject to age and other conditions.

“We cannot be prescriptive to the Australian government about the type and measure of assistance that should be offered, and we understand that treatment should be fair.

“However, it is worth pointing out that South African families in Australia have shown self-sufficiency, low maintenance and ­remarkable integration.”

Mr Nel, who moved to Australia 17 years ago from Bloemfontein, told The Australian the letter was aimed at ensuring persecuted South Africans were not deemed to be given special treatment but judged on their merits and not their skin colour.

The carefully worded letter to Mr Dutton comes after the government was accused by Labor and Greens MPs of contemplating a push to end Australia’s non-­discriminatory humanitarian visa regime.

“What we are saying is this doesn’t just relate to South Africans. This relates to any country where families of Australian citizens are subject to unacceptable levels of violence. We are making it very clear that is what we want,” Mr Nel said. “We support the farmers, not based on the colour of their skin, but based on the plight of that person.”

Mr Nel described how, five years ago, his parents were ­attacked in Pretoria. His father, Louis, died on Sunday from a rare brain disease known as progressive supranuclear palsy that he said was a consequence of the assault.

“My parents were attacked in their house. They were not farmers. They were pensioners. They were renting a house. They were tortured for three hours in their own home,” he said. “These people came into their house. They brutally attacked my dad. My dad said ‘Take my car and take whatever money I have and leave us alone’.

“They proceeded to torture them. They stripped him naked and put a pistol to his head and three times they pulled the trigger and three times the pistol misfired.

“They then tied them up on the floor with a telephone cord. He chewed through this cord eventually. He untied my mum. He couldn’t get up because he was hit over his head with a metal pipe.’’

The letter was read aloud at Sunday’s march in Perth in support of the South African farmers that was attended by thousands of supporters, with more Liberal MPs urging the government to take ­action by accepting a special intake of up to 10,000 people.

West Australian Liberal MP Ian Goodenough told The Australian he supported “a special intake within 5000 to 10,000, given it’s very similar to the Syrian intake that we had”.

He also threw his support behind an internal party discussion about the prospect of broader changes to the visa ­system.

He said this could include an examination of visa “categories and conditions” that would allow Australian residents to bring in family members from overseas if their lives were in danger.

“The next steps will be to present that letter to the minister, Peter Dutton, and then have some internal party discussions about some of the parameters surrounding what the proposal involves,” Mr Goodenough said.