Migration lawyers have called for the demands of a parliamentary report into the family visa system to be heeded after it laid bare the human cost of its failures.
The inquiry into the “efficacy, fairness, timeliness and costs of the processing and granting” of family or partner visas last week recommended urgent reform be undertaken.
Its major finding outlines that “as a matter of urgency” the Department of Home Affairs needs to develop a “long-term strategy to update its system for the processing of visas.”
In a sweeping critique, it says this action is needed to improve “efficiency, to reduce its complexities, reduce waiting times substantially and to provide greater transparency for applicants.”
The report also highlights the need to “appropriately” resource the Department of Home Affairs to undertake “urgently” the development of the strategy and its “timely implementation”.
Josephine Langbien, senior lawyer of the Human Rights Law Centre, said it was “hugely significant” the report had delivered the findings, following the concerns raised by stakeholders.
“It really shows that the system is broken and is failing families,” she told SBS News.
“That evidence lays bare the unreasonable delays, exorbitant cost and discriminatory policies that prevent people from reuniting with their loved ones for years."
In a statement a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said it acknowledged the Senate Committee’s report and contributed to the inquiry.
"The report’s recommendations will be carefully considered by Government and responded to in due course,” the spokesperson said.
Committee findings
The committee is chaired by Labor Senator Kim Carr, deputy chaired by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson and includes three Labor, two Liberal and one Greens member.
But despite being a Labor-led committee, the report included no dissenting comments from government members against its findings.
In its final remarks, signed off by Senator Carr, the committee said it recognised that family reunion should be viewed as an essential component of a successful visa program.
"The debate over immigration has too often presented family reunion as a balance between social, economic, and humanitarian interests," it said.
It also heard “deeply concerning” evidence about the experiences of individuals within the family stream of the migration program.
This included complaints the system was “expensive, opaque, lengthy, and particularly difficult for the most vulnerable sectors of the migrant population to navigate.”
“More must be done to ensure that the visa application process is efficient, transparent and equitable whilst also serving the policy priorities of the Australian government,” the report said.
Ali Mohtahedi is the principal solicitor of the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre - a legal aid service in NSW that works with families trying to navigate the visa system.
He said many of his clients that were vulnerable — including those with disabilities or survivors of domestic abuse — had faced these difficulties.
“It’s incredibly difficult to navigate and understand not only the process but the law,” he told SBS News.
“It includes processes and definitions that are complicated for the lawyers, let alone the people that might not have English as a first language.”
The report also takes aim at the IT systems used by the Department of Home Affairs, saying they are a “significant impediment” to the “efficient operation” of the migration program.
The processing systems were identified to be “approximately 30 years old” and “not well geared” for what is considered “accepted standards of modern service delivery”.
In additional comments, the Greens - who spearheaded the commissioning of the inquiry - said the visa system must “urgently be made fairer, faster and more affordable.”
This included raising concerns about what is known as Ministerial Direction 80 - which means that refugees who arrived by boat and their families are placed at the lowest processing priority.
There needs to be a complete review of the way decisions are made in the refugee space and a return to integrity because it is costing people years of their lives.Sanmati Verma, partner at Clothier Anderson Immigration Lawyers
Sanmati Verma, partner at Clothier Anderson Immigration Lawyers, said the report painted a “stark picture” of the “maladministration” of the partner and family visa system.
“There needs to be a complete review of the way decisions are made in the refugee space and a return to integrity because it is costing people years of their lives,” she said.
“There needs to be a complete overhaul in the way that migration decision-making is done.”
The most recent federal budget released last week included a decision by the Morrison government to move partner visa processing to a demand-driven model.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said this would “provide the flexibility to meet demand for Partner visas in a given program year.”
It included a decision for 100 places from the partner stream to be diverted to the skill stream.
But Ms Verma said she was concerned the decision would only add to the difficulties already faced by those in the system.
“There is no justification for it and you would hope, if there were a change in government, these wouldn’t see the light of day.”
