No Work, No Income, No Medicare- The Bridging Visa E Regime

Very exciting news! This week there was an article published in a journal called 'People and Place' called "No Work, No Income, No Medicare - The Bridging Visa E Regime". It was writting by m'good self, and Prof Andrew Markus at Monash Uni. It has been almost immediately picked up by the Herald Sun! See the article below...

If you are interested in reading the article you can find at this link: http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/view/abstract/?article=0000010322

Here is a little abstract: A number of asylum seekers in Australia who are living in the community and do not meet certain criteria specified by the Government are given a Bridging Visa E (BE) while their cases are reviewed. The BVE denies them the right to work or to access education, health services or welfare. They are therefore dependent on friends, family or non-Government organisations, sometimes for considerable periods.


No work, no benefits for asylum-seekers

John Masanauskas
12apr06

MORE than 1000 asylum-seekers in Melbourne are living in poverty because the Federal Government won't allow them to work or provide them with benefits, a report says.

The Monash University report said that they were being penalised because they lodged late asylum claims or had appealed against decisions in their cases.

Many of the asylum-seekers are being supported by charities, which are finding it hard to cope with limited resources.
"From the perspectives of the support and advocacy groups, an injustice of great magnitude has been perpetrated in Australia," the report said.

"A regime is in place which should never have been tolerated in a prosperous, moral, democratic society."

Written by Andrew Markus and Jessie Taylor, the report is published in People and Place, the journal of Monash's Centre for Population and Urban Research.

The report said payments of up to $380 a fortnight were available to eligible asylum-seekers unable to meet basic needs for food, accommodation and health care.

But an unknown number of people seeking refuge were ineligible for the Immigration Department scheme.

Prof Markus said that, based on data from charities, there were more than 1000 asylum-seekers in Melbourne who were without working rights.

"This is a major challenge for our society," Prof Markus said