Palestinian visa holder in Australian detention after failing ‘character test’
One Palestinian is in immigration detention after their visitor visa was revoked onshore on character grounds.
Home Affairs officials confirmed in Senate estimates on Monday that 3041 Palestinians have been granted visas from October 7, 2023 to October 15, 2024, 126 of which were granted onshore.
In addition, 7252 visas were refused - four of which were done so onshore. A further 44 people had their visas cancelled offshore, with 21 of those applications later reinstated. Fifteen of those individuals subsequently came to Australia.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.After repeated questioning by Liberal senator James Paterson, officials confirmed one person had had their visa cancelled while onshore because they failed to pass a “character test”.
The cancellation appears to have occurred since October 9, when in response to persistent questioning from the Coalition, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told parliament all visa cancellations relating to Palestinians from Gaza had “so far been offshore”.
Murray Watt, the minister representing Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, said he could confirm “to the best of my knowledge, everything that ministers have previously said was correct at the point in time that they said that”.
“It’s not unprecedented for people granted a visa to have that visa cancelled because of security information,” he said.
“It happened on 20 occasions when Mr Dutton was minister.”
The Coalition has for weeks accused the Government of being “lax” with security checks for Palestinians who’ve arrived in Australia since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
Senator Paterson queried whether the landmark NZYQ High Court ruling - that deemed indefinite detention illegal - could be applied to the individual.
Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster told the committee “we’d be speculating about that, we don’t know the circumstances yet”.
Officials could not confirm whether the detainee would be removed from Australia, despite Mr Burke’s previous comments that Australia could not send Palestinian refugees back to Gaza amid the conflict.
