Refugees and their supporters have rallied in Melbourne against the federal government's decision to strip asylum seekers in Australia of income support.
The Turnbull government announced on Monday it had cancelled $200-a-fortnight payments to 100 asylum seekers and given them three weeks to move out of public housing after being moved onto a final departure bridging visa.
Treasurer Scott Morrison this week said the measure targeted people who had "gamed the system" to get to Australia including those who came from offshore detention centres for medical treatment.
One asylum seeker says he has only had one month of freedom on a six-month bridging visa after spending more than four years in detention on Manus Island.
Having worked at a shoe company and as a farmer back home in Afghanistan, he was looking forward to finally enjoying a new life in Australia after being treated for a heart disorder.
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This week, his case worker told him his Centrelink payments had been cut and he had only three weeks left in his Melbourne accommodation.
"There's a lot of problems in Afghanistan, there is lots of fighting, I'm not going back to Afghanistan," he told AAP at Saturday's rally.
A Sri Lankan asylum seeker, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had endured three years in detention at Nauru before finally being granted a bridging visa on July 26.
He has a prosthetic leg and shrapnel through much of his body after being injured in an explosion in Sri Lanka in 1999, making life "very hard" on Nauru, which he said was "all gravel".
He says he fell several times while in detention, badly injuring his stump.
The man, who is living in Endeavour Hills, told AAP he has no idea where he will go once he is forced to leave his public housing apartment.
"Last Monday immigration told me just three weeks in this house, after that you're out (and) Centrelink cut," he says.
Several hundred people gathered on the steps of Parliament House on Saturday, with speakers including refugees, Victorian Labor MP Andrew Giles, trauma psychiatrist Helen Driscoll and Father Bob Maguire.
Refugee advocates have said they fear up to 400 asylum seekers could be affected by the welfare crackdown.
