Churches across Australia will offer sanctuary to any refugees and asylum seekers left homeless and destitute by changes to the government’s visa regime.



The Very Rev Peter Catt, Anglican dean of Brisbane and chair of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, said a network of churches, aid agencies, community groups and refugee advocacy organisations would offer housing, financial support, food, clothing, medicines and other necessities to assist refugees and asylum seekers who have lost the right to government financial support and housing.

“Yesterday over 40 men and women went into an appointment with immigration, emerging penniless, without housing, and terrified of returning to harm on Manus and Nauru. Among them were pregnant women and women that came to Australia for treatment after being sexually assaulted on Nauru,” Catt said.

“We will not stand by and allow them to be made destitute and forced back to danger on Nauru. When this government is cruel, the community will be kind.”

Leaked government fact sheets outline a plan for asylum seekers and refugees living in Australia to be given a new “final departure bridging visa”, which would see them lose government financial assistance – currently $300 a fortnight – and evicted from government-supplied housing.

So far, 100 single men and women in Australia have been instructed to meet with the immigration department and told they will be subject to the new regime.

Sanctuary still exists, we’ve got aid agencies ready to assist Anglican dean of Brisbane Peter Catt

The 100 are among about 400 refugees and asylum seekers – known as the “Let Them Stay” cohort – who have been brought to Australia from Manus and Nauru for medical treatment, including complex surgery and long-term mental health treatment, or to give birth. Some have been victims of rape and assault offshore.

The 400 also include 116 children, many enrolled in Australian schools, and 37 babies born in Australia to asylum seeker and refugee parents.

Those children, while born in Australia (and, in many cases, having never left the country) are regarded as “illegal maritime arrivals” by the government.

Last year, a network of Australian churches publicly offered sanctuary to asylum seekers and refugees facing return to Nauru and Manus Island.

There is a long tradition of churches acting as physical places of sanctuary.

The right of churches to provide sanctuary, in which fugitives were immune to arrest, was recognised by English law from the fourth to the 17th century. It no longer has any legal force but is rather observed out of tradition or as a metaphorical safe haven. The right does not exist in Australian law.

Catt said the government’s latest visa changes were politically motivated, and were “really an attempt to get refugees and asylum seekers to go back out of desperation, to starve them into it”.

“Today’s announcement is really to remind people that if the government does try to remove people by force, then sanctuary still exists, we’ve got aid agencies ready to assist.”

Catt urged the Australian public to support agencies who had pledged to assist affected asylum seekers and refugees.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, enlarged upon the visa changes this week, saying that asylum seekers and refugees had been exploiting the system in Australia, and that “the con is up”.

He told News Corp, “they were brought to Australia on the premise that once their medical needs were met they would return to Nauru or Manus”.

“The medical care has been provided and through tricky legal moves they are now prevented from being returned to their country of origin, Manus or Nauru.”

The minister said, “in some cases, this con has been going on for years, costing the Australian taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars for each individual”.

It costs $573,000 a year to house a single asylum seeker or refugee in offshore detention for a year, according to the government’s own audit. The auditor says it costs about $40,000 to have someone supported in Australia on a bridging visa.

Australia now attempts not to allow refugees and asylum seekers to be transferred to Australia for required advanced medical care. In internal documents, the government says it tries to prevent medical transfers because of refugees’ “propensity” to exercise their rights in the courts and seek injunctions preventing their return to the Australian-run offshore islands.

More than 50 people are on the Overseas Medical Referral list in Nauru. They have been recommended for overseas transfer for medical treatment unavailable on Nauru, but have been refused or not even considered.

At least 60 men have been transferred from the Manus Island facility to the PNG capital, Port Moresby, ostensibly for medical treatment. Many, however, have been held in the capital – in a hotel paid for by Australia – for months and do not expect to return to Manus.

In June, the government agreed to pay $70m in compensation to the Manus Island detainees, who sought damages in the Victorian supreme court for illegally detaining them in dangerous and harmful conditions.