Public Forum – Study Rights for All Refugees & Asylum Seekers!
Location: UTS Broadway or Zoom
Time: Thursday 6 October 12-2pm
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/425520221437
Speakers:
*Dorothy Hoddinott, AO (former principal, Holroyd HS)
*Zaki Haidari (Amnesty Int’l Refugee Campaign Team, Afghan SHEV holder)
*Asma Nayim Ullah (Rohingya TPV holder who did the HSC in 2020)
*Sally Baker (Refugee Education SIG)
*Mark Goudkamp (Teachers 4 Refugees)
*Rachael Jacobs (MC: Teacher & Academics 4 Refugees)
*Other recent Year 12 students on SHEV, TPV & Bridging Visas will attend
We are demanding:
*Convert TPV & SHEV holders to permanency now! There is still no timeline
for Albanese government’s promise to grant permanent visas to more than
19,000 refugees on Temporary Protection Visas and Safe Haven Enterprise
Visas.
*Abolish the “fast track” system of refugee determination! Labor has also
failed to deliver on its promise to review Morrison’s unfair “fast track” refugee
determination system for asylum seekers who come by boat before July 2013.
*Study rights for all refugees & asylum seekers! Ex-Nauru asylum seekers on BVEs or in Community
Detention have no right to tertiary study when they turn 18.
Despite the Albanese government’s promise to grant the more than 19,000 refugees on Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Safe Have Enterprise Visas (SHEVs), four months since being elected on 21 May, there is still no timeline for when this will happen.
Current and recent year 12 students on TPVs and SHEVs still have to apply to university as international students.
In NSW alone there are many students on TPVs and SHEVs about to sit their HSC, while a similar number of asylum seekers are on Bridging Visas Es. There are also a few in Community Detention previously detained on Nauru who have no right to tertiary study at all. The HSC is stressful for any student, but every day that Labor delays reversing Morrison’s cruel system of exclusion is unnecessary torture.
In addition, hundreds of young refugees and asylum seekers have completed their HSC in the past 8 years, still unable to access university (or TAFE courses above the level of Certificate IV).
The only option for these current and recent Year 12 students is to apply for a full-fee waiver scholarship. However, too few universities offer these and many inevitably miss out. Australia is denying these students their basic right to an education.
Come and hear our amazing panel of speakers and discuss the next steps in the campaign to win study rights and permanent visas for all.