There is a growing understanding that asylum seekers who arrive by sea are particularly demonised and they experience abhorrent treatment in offshore detention centres, but often forgotten by both the media and public are those living in the community awaiting an outcome on their humanitarian visa applications. These people make up the vast majority of asylum seekers in Australia but there is little understanding about the reality of awaiting that decision.

On paper, it seems that we all agree; seeking asylum is a human right. Australia is a signatory to the UN convention relating to the status of refugees and has a process in place for people to lodge protection visa applications. What is often hidden from view is the reality of this process. Although asylum seekers exercise a human right by lodging paperwork, this act allows our Government to systematically strip vulnerable people of further fundamental human rights throughout a process that can take a decade or more.

A lot of information about asylum seekers is kept from the public and it’s this strategy that removes their humanity. People seeking asylum are referred to only as numbers. Lentara UnitingCare – Asylum Seeker Project (ASP) Social Worker, Amanda Johnson, will present client case studies to try and reinstate the humanity of people seeking safety in Australia. These case studies depict the effect of; no work or study rights, no right to Medicare, living on an income of $23 per week (or $1,200 per year), the effect of not being believed and living without purpose.