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Rights of Asylum Seekers
As an asylum seeker in Australia, you have certain
rights. The Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme (ASAS)
provides financial assistance and health care to eligible asylum
seekers who have been
waiting for six months or more for their Protection Visa applications
to be finalised by the
Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
The Scheme is administered by the Department of Immigration and
Multicultural and Indigenous
Affairs (DIMA) through contractual arrangements with the Australian
Red Cross Society.
Asylum seekers wanting to apply for ASA should approach the Australian
Red Cross in
any Australian State/Territory capital city.
This assistance can include:
• Financial assistance
• Assistance in preparing the protection application
• Access to work rights
• Access to Medicare.
Financial Assistance
Financial assistance is available to eligible PV applicants living
in the community who are
unable to meet their most basic needs for food, accommodation and
health care.
To be eligible for the ASA, asylum seekers must be in financial
hardship and:
• have lodged a valid Protection Visa application over six
months ago
• not be in detention
• must hold a bridging or other visa
• not have been released from detention on an undertaking
of support
• not be eligible for either Commonwealth or overseas government
income support, and
• not be a spouse, de facto or sponsored fiance(e) of a permanent
resident.
Also eligible may be the following:
• unaccompanied minors or elderly persons
• parents with children under 18 years of age, and
• persons unable to work as a result of a disability, illness
or torture/trauma
Assistance in preparing the protection application
Application assistance is provided to eligible applicants:
• to prepare, lodge and present applications for visas.
• to prepare a merits review application should primary application
be refused; and
• to explain the implications of visa decisions made by the
Department and relevant merits review tribunal.
This assistance is provided through The Immigration Advice and
Application Assistance Scheme
(IAAAS) which funds selected registered Migration Agents to provide
immigration advice and assistance.
To learn more about IAAAS, read
DIMA Fact Sheet 63: Immigration Advice and Application Assistance
Scheme
To be eligible for the IAAAS, the applicant must be:
• protection visa applicants in immigration detention, or
• disadvantaged protection visa applicants in financial
hardship, or
• disadvantaged non protection visa applicants in greatest
need in the community because of poor understanding of English,
inability to read and write, gender, disability, having suffered
from torture or other trauma, or living in a remote location.
Access to Work Rights
With the exception of people detained as unauthorised arrivals,
PV applicants are granted a
bridging visa, which allows them to remain lawfully in
the community until their applications
are finalised.
A bridging visa may have work rights attached if the applicant
for a PV has been in Australia for
fewer than 45 days in the 12 months before they lodge a
PV application.
If you have been in Australia for 45 days or more
in the 12 months before your PV application
is made, you can only be granted a bridging visa with a NO
WORK condition attached.
This means you are not permitted to
work.
However, if:
• the Minister identifies a group of people who are affected
by a significant change in
circumstances in the country in which they fear persecution, or
• it takes DIMA more than six months to make a decision on
your application and
• you had a valid visa on the day when you applied for the
PV, and
• you can demonstrate a compelling need to work,
you may then apply for and be granted another bridging visa with
permission to work.
Access to Medicare
To be eligible for Medicare, the asylum seeker must:
- have a current application for a permanent residence visa,
for migration or asylum that
was not as yet decided, and
- hold a valid visa with work rights.
Some asylum seekers without work rights may qualify for Medicare
if they are the spouse,
child or parent of an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
TPV holders also have access to Medicare.
ASA recipients who do not have access to Medicare can receive
assistance with health
care costs and can also be referred to counselling services.
NOTE: Assistance under the ASA Scheme is not
generally available to Protection Visa
applicants seeking a review of their case through the Refugee Review
Tribunal.
However, since July 1999 eligibility has been extended to include
some review applicants
in financial hardship who are unable to meet their basic needs and
who have no continuing
or adequate support.
Once your application for PV has been decided, you are no longer
eligible for ASAS.
Valuable information about Asylum Seekers rights in Australia can
be found
here.
This document was originally prepared by the Asylum Seeker Resource
Centre in Melbourne.
If you would like to talk to someone in Brisbane about your rights,
you can contact the Refugee Claimants Support Centre on (07) 3357
9013, or visit them at 12 Bonython Street, Windsor.
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