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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years in offshore detention on Manus Island before being transferred to Australia for mental health treatment under now repealed Medevac legislation.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.
Over nearly a year of a pandemic, many people have become acutely aware of what it means to be confined to their homes. But for asylum-seekers who have been held in Australian hotels, these stifling conditions have stretched on for months and months, pushing some to the breaking point. Two have tried to commit suicide.
Jan 22, 2021
Melbourne – When authorities brought Ramsiyar Sabanayagam to the Mantra Bell City Preston hotel in suburban Melbourne in November 2019, he assumed he would be there for only a few weeks.
Instead, Sabanayagam, a refugee from Sri Lanka, spent the next 14 months locked inside his room for all but a brief period each day, unsure when his ordeal would end.
He and the other refugees detained in the hotel were ordered to keep their windows shut until, after protesting, they were allowed to crack them open, but no more than 4 inches. Guards checked on them day and night, sometimes shining flashlights into their faces while they slept. The men could see guests coming and going, and they knew that people were gathering with friends and loved ones in the dining hall below, but they had no hope of joining them.
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Twenty more refugees have been freed from hotel detention a day after the surprise release of 45 men locked up in Melbourne for more than a year.
However, 14 other men remain detained at the Park Hotel in Carlton, having been denied visas, but not told why.
Medevac detainees Subeshan Kanagalingam (left) and Parkeerathan Palasingam have been released from a Melbourne hotel after years in immigration detention.
Credit:Rachael Dexter
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the government had decided to release many of the refugees into the community as it was cheaper than paying for their prolonged stay in hotels or detention centres.