By Patrick O’Connor, TRLS CEO
The Iran conflict has affected many in the community. There are several cohorts of people that the service provides free legal representation to that are significantly impacted by the crisis.
We have current Iranian clients that we are providing full legal representation to for their asylum cases. These are clients in Tasmania, who are living in the community on temporary visas, and face a well-founded fear of persecution if there are forced to return to Iran. There are also Iranians now settled in Tasmania who are separated from their partners and seeking to bring them to Tasmania.
Then there is the Afghan community in Tasmania. Millions of Afghans sought temporary safety in Iran after the Taliban takeover in 2021. We are representing about 500 people still there who have family in Tasmania and who are now facing an even more dangerous situation.
In the past few weeks, we have called on the Government in several key meetings to open up humanitarian corridors and pathways for people in unsafe situations – who have Tasmanian family members – to be able to come to safety to be with their family in Australia. We have seen the Government move very quickly to grant asylum to several footballers, who have a well-founded fear of persecution, and we have called on the Government to provide the same consistent approach to all cases from Iran for people living in the community in Tasmania.
The Government in the past few weeks have enacted temporary travel restrictions for Iranian passport holders outside of Australia who have a Visitor (Subclass 600) visa to come to Australia. This is in force for 6 months. This has meant that around 7,000 people, who held valid visas to come to Australia from Iran, have now been banned from arriving in Australia, unless an exemption applies.
We have been lobbying the Government for a more human response to the crises while providing individual specific legal advice and representation to our clients who face fear, uncertainty and concern for their family members in Iran. We will continue to advocate for all our Iranian clients both individually and in the boarder context with the Government.