Two asylum seekers dropped at Australia for medical treatment under the now-repealed medevac legislation are free of detention. They are believed to be the primary of nearly 200 refugees and asylum seekers transported off Manus Island and Nauru for medical treatment thereunder law to be granted visas to legally reside in Australia. The medevac amendment to the Migration Act was lapsed Parliament against the Government’s wishes in February 2019. it had been repealed nine months later in December of that year. One of the asylum seekers was released from detention in Brisbane on Monday, the opposite from a location in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon. One of the lads was dropped at Australia in September 2019 and had until his release been detained at the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel in Brisbane, designated another Point of Detention (APOD) by the Australian Border Force. He was granted a visa on December 7, just three days before a hearing scheduled within the Federal Circuit Court seeking to own his detention declared illegal. Migration agent Noeline Harendran represented the person and said she believed the govt. issued the visa to avoid risking a loss in court. She said she also believed a court case would reveal the govt had no plan for the medevac refugees now in detention. “He was released from the purpose of entry into the Australian community with a visa,” she said. “In our point of view, it’d set a precedent for those who are during a similar situation. Yes, we expect it could.” Ms Harendran and lawyer Daniel Taylor from Sydney West Legal and Migration represent several refugees and asylum seekers delivered to Australia under the medevac legislation — all with hearings scheduled before the Federal Circuit Court. On Wednesday afternoon, another client was released after being granted a visa. He had been detained at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation and had a hearing scheduled in January. He was dropped at Australia under the medevac law for medical treatment in mid-2019. Former independent MP and leading campaigner for the medevac law Kerryn Phelps said she hoped this meant a change within the Government’s approach. “I’m hoping that this can be an indication that there’s a brand new attitude to those who are indefinitely detained,” she said. Dr Phelps said she hoped this was “an outbreak of reality”, pertaining to the present COVID-19 restrictions. “What’s happening is that the govt is saying that the people cannot return to their country of origin, that within the current situation they can’t be returned to the places where they were previously held in offshore detention and long-term detention of individuals in hotel rooms in Australia is simply not an option.” Jana Favero from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) said she would really like to work out the method sped up. “Any release of individuals from detention who were transferred under the then-medevac laws is nice news,” she said. “We’ve been advocating for the discharge of all of these who were transferred through medevac, so we’d wish to see the discharge of all of them and hopefully not one by one.” Ms Favero said it had been especially difficult for medevac detainees during the pandemic. “The majority of them are in [hotels in] Brisbane and Melbourne, either held at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane or Mantra in Melbourne,” she said. “During the pandemic, the hotel rooms are really small. They’re small rooms. there isn’t any freedom of movement. they can not go outside.” Before the medevac legislation passed and while it had been effective, the govt. argued it undermined its control over Australia’s borders. The law allowed refugees and asylum seekers from Manus Island in Papua Papua and Nauru to be delivered to Australia for treatment if it had been recommended by a medical panel. “Someone who’s a paedophile, who’s a rapist, who has committed murder — any of those other crimes — can just be moved on the say-so of a pair of doctors on Skype,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in February 2019. The ABC submitted a series of questions on these developments to the Department of Home Affairs, which is to blame for immigration and customs border policy. It issued a one-line response: “The department doesn’t discuss individual cases.” Advocates have long argued detainees dropped at Australia under the medevac law are treated more harshly than other refugees and asylum seekers transported for medical treatment. The ASRC said about 1,000 people transferred to Australia for medical or other reasons were now living within the community. “It’s only that group who were transferred under medevac who are still in detention, when others who arrived before them and after them also for medical reasons and medical treatment don’t seem to be in detention,” Ms Favero said.
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