It's been four weeks of cold nights for those camped outside federal Labor MP and government offices demanding an end to what they describe as more than a decade of painful limbo.
Dozens of people seeking asylum — most of whom have been on temporary visas in Australia for 12 years or more — on Monday marched from the Department of Home Affairs in Melbourne to the Australian Labor Party's Victorian headquarters.
Nooshad Kardigar, 33, who was born in Iran and lives with cerebral palsy, was among those demanding permanent visas or another chance to prove their refugee status.
"My home country is not safe," he told the ABC.
Mr Kardigar completed his university qualification in IT back in Iran before the family fled and came to Australia from Indonesia by boat.
His mother, Narges Shaterian, said that his visa status in Australia had prevented him from finding accessible work as a person with a disability.
As a result, she said Mr Kardigar had been effectively housebound since 2013.
Ms Shaterian said she used to own a Melbourne pizza shop, but been forced to shut the business down to become Mr Kardigar's carer.
Many other people with disabilities, even those born in Australia, have faced deportation due to the government's assessment that their residency would pose an undue cost to taxpayers.
"In the last election, the public voted for fairer and more compassionate politics," Victorian Greens MP Samantha Ratnam, who attended the rally on Monday, told the ABC.
"But the Albanese government has failed thousands of refugees who remain in limbo with no certainty about their own future and the future of their children."
In February 2023, the Albanese government announced that holders of Temporary Protection Visas (TPV) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEV) would be allowed to apply for a permanent Resolution of Status visa, providing greater certainty to around 19,000 refugees.
"It makes no sense — economically or socially — to keep them in limbo," Mr Giles said at the time.
But for some 10,000 people who arrived by boat after August 13, 2012, and had their cases rejected under the controversial so-called "fast track" system, their status has remained temporary.
The Albanese government abolished the Fast Track system with effect from July 1, 2024 — but those whose cases were rejected under the system remain on bridging visas or with no visas at all.
Sri Lankan Tamils, Iranians more affected
The Human Rights Law Centre's legal director Sanmati Verma said Australia had "one of the most complicated and bureaucratic systems of migration and asylum that exist in the whole world".
"That's not a flaw, or a glitch, or a design error — that's a matter of deliberate design," she told the ABC.
"The system is intended to weaponise legal status, to create all sorts of legal statuses based on arbitrary distinctions: how people arrived in the country, when they arrived in the country, on which visa they arrived."
Chandra Mathiyalagan is a mother of four who has lived in Australia for 12 years.
Her youngest child, Akshath, is a happy, healthy three-year-old boy.
Despite being born in Australia, however, Akshath does not have a valid visa, Ms Mathiyalagan said.
When he gets sick, the family cannot access Medicare and has to find the money to pay full medical fees.
When Akshath reaches school age in two years, he will be unable to attend.
"Under migration legislation, children born in Australia to parents with on-hand visa applications, are also taken to have applied for the same visa as their parents on the date of their birth," a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said.
Like many of those protesting outside Home Affairs, Ms Mathiyalagan's family are ethnic Tamils from Sri Lanka — just like the Murugappan family from Biloela, whose high-profile case eventually resulted in them being granted permanent status.
The majority of those outside Home Affairs in Melbourne and Tony Burke's office in Sydney are Sri Lankan Tamils.
Other members of the protest included people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Bangladesh.
Experts say Tamil asylum seekers forced to return to Sri Lanka have been targeted for abductions, sexual and physical violence, and torture.
"A lot of these women [protesting] are survivors of that absolutely brutal, genocidal war that took place," Ms Verma said.
Iranians and Sri Lankans had their refugee status rejected at much higher rates in the 'fast-track' process — for those who had previously arrived by boat — than the same groups of people who arrived using other ways, she said.
"These are people from the same country who are being assessed in relation to the same country circ*mstances … and it's producing dramatically different results."
The Department of Home Affairs said it did not comment on individual cases.
"Those with new, credible protection claims relating to changes in their country of origin or personal circ*mstances, may request ministerial intervention," a spokesperson said.
'If you want to deport us, please kill us'
In mid-July, desperate asylum seekers frustrated with a lack of progress on their cases decided to camp outside then-minister Clare O'Neil's electoral office in suburban Melbourne.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a cabinet reshuffle in late July, replacing Ms O'Neil and Andrew Giles in the home affairs and immigration portfolios with senior ALP figure Tony Burke.
Since then, people have also camped outside Mr Burke's electoral office in Punchbowl in Sydney's west.
The ABC understands that several protesters were able to speak directly with Mr Burke's staff on Monday.
Those camped out in Melbourne relocated to the Department of Home Affairs.
Ms Verma said that just like the Murugappan family, those protesting had "the same types of connections to the community that you can expect from people who have been somewhere for over a decade".
"They consider Australia to be their home, and it is in everything but the legal sense," she said.
Ms Shaterian said that when she came to Australia she had "lots of dreams and wishes because we found a safe place".
"We work here already, we pay tax, we are happy to build Australia … we already lost our home. Please let us call Australia home," she said.
Ms Shaterian said that despite Foreign Minister Penny Wong's statements of solidarity with women in Iran, Iranian women like herself in Australia were at risk of execution or imprisonment if they returned.
"We can't imagine being sent back to Iran. If you want to deport us, please kill us first because we never want to go there."
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