Kurdish refugee Mostafa Azimitabar brought a landmark legal challenge against the federal government over the use of hotels in Australia to detain refugees and asylum seekers. Here's the backstory to how the case began.
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Medevac refugees released from detention have travelled to Parliament House to call for an end to the uncertainty faced by asylum seekers impacted by Australia’s offshore processing regime.
Thanush Selvarasa and Ramsiyar Sabanayagam were among around 60 refugees and asylum seekers last month released from immigration detention in Australia, in a surprise move by the federal government.
Mr Selvarasa - a refugee from Sri Lanka - had spent nearly six years in offshore detention on Manus Island before being transferred to Australia for mental health treatment under now repealed Medevac legislation.
Refugee Thanush Selvarasa at Parliament House in Canberra with advocacy groups and politicians.
He would stand by it, for hours some days, to let the air and the noise of the outside world rush in, and to look out at those outside: protesters who came to campaign for his freedom, people walking past oblivious, the slow crawl of cars on now-unhurried streets.
Mostafa Azimitabar by the window in his room inside Melbourneâs Mantra Hotel, where he spent 13 months. Photograph: Moz Azimi
Now, suddenly, he is part of that world.
He is free, with a visa to live in Australia.
Azimitabar â known across the country as Moz Azimi - described his release on Thursday as âthe most beautiful moment of my lifeâ.