Australians with visa approved families in Gaza told they will not receive help for non-immediate family members

Palestinians who have applied for their families to arrive in Australia on temporary visas say they are being left in the lurch after the federal government told them it cannot assist the evacuation of non-immediate family members from the war zone.

The Department of Home Affairs announced last month that 860 temporary visas were approved for Palestinians to stay in Australia for between three and 12 months.

Melbourne man Saad Dawwas’ family in Gaza was approved in mid-November. But, since then, their names have not appeared on the list of people who have been approved to leave Gaza through the Rafah Border Crossing.

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Palestinian families have been monitoring the list uploaded on the State of Palestine General Authority for Crossings and Borders Facebook page for weeks, and, while they have seen citizens of the United States and United Kingdom able to leave, only seven Australians have been named since December 1.

On Tuesday, December 19, the Albanese government told Australians who had applied for their families to arrive that Israel and Egypt “have put tight limits on who can cross”, which would only include foreign citizens “spouses/de facto partners and dependent children.”

“Meeting requirements for an Australian visa does not mean an entitlement to consular assistance, nor does it mean that other authorities will automatically allow people to leave where they are,” the letter from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to families said.

“As you are now ineligible for assistance from the Australian Government, we will now close your registration,” it said.

Saad said the fact his family would not be supported meant he was in “constant fear” they could be killed.

“(It’s) a dehumanisation of Palestinians. The Palestinian value of life is not (considered) the same as Europeans. The government can do a lot better.”

Among the approved Dawwas family members with visitor visas’ are Saad’s cousins, Suzie, Hala and Mariam, as well as Mariam’s five-year-old daughter Sophie.

Hala, 18, requires regular surgery to her pelvic region because of a car accident in 2009 in which she was seriously injured.

But Israel’s bombardment and tightened blockade of Gaza has meant hospitals are overrun and medical supplies short, with doctors reporting they have had to prioritise the most urgent patients, and sometimes perform operations without anaesthetics.

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, and about 1,200 Israelis since the Hamed-led incursion into Israel on October 7.

The lack of health services since the war begun has meant Hala cannot have the surgery and is now in constant pain.

Contaminated water supplies coupled with her medical condition have caused her a unitary tract infection, for which the family have not been able to secure antibiotics to treat.

Hala’s sister, Yasmin Dawwas, said their father also died without medical support on November 25 following a stroke.

“I have no words to describe this … it’s too painful to think about … they were waiting in the house watching him … he couldn’t breathe … and an ambulance couldn’t come,” Yasmin said.

She said five-year-old Sophie was struggling with the sounds of people screaming, bombing and her family’s displacement.

The family has launched an online fundraiser to support her family who, like some other families, have been told by Egyptian officials at the border, they will need to pay $8,000 to secure their passage out of the war zone.

A DFAT spokesperson said, “it remains extremely difficult to get people out of Gaza. The ability of the Australian Government to help is limited.”

“Australia is doing all it can to advocate for all Australians, permanent residents and immediate family members who wish to leave Gaza,” they said.

Sydney woman, Ghofran*, was expecting her mother-in-law, Mona, to arrive in Australia after Mona was accepted on a visitor visa (subclass 600) on November 21.

Ghofran questioned whether the Commonwealth Government had empathy for the people living in Gaza.

“We are really angry. We are really disappointed … We really didn’t think that our government would let us down, we are Australian citizens … we feel discriminated against,” she said.

Ghofran also applied for multiple of her husband’s other family members, the youngest aged one-years-old, to escape the war and come to Sydney, and is waiting for a response on their visas.

“The sentence that breaks my heart every time that we have spoken, they say, ‘ we are still alive’. Can you imagine living in a place where you’re just hanging on for your life?,” she said,

Nearly of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been internally displaced and some of Ghofran’s family are living with other people, while one is living in a tent because of overcrowded buildings.

The United Nations said Gaza’s entire population is facing a hunger crisis, as only 10 per cent of the aid required is being delivered into the enclave.

“They’re living without many basics. They are finding it extremely hard to find one meal a day. If there is food and water, you need to be in line for hours and hours, it could be 10 hours that you’re in line to fill up your water,” Ghofran said.

“Some people have lost hope and are just wishing to die already.”

Since the Australian Government’s email that it cannot help people not classed as immediate family, Ghofran said she’s anxious about breaking the news to Mona, who was holding on to hope she maybe able to flee Gaza.

“If they (the Australian Government) decide not to help. They are doomed there. I’m really disappointed,” she said.

Charities pull together to support Gaza arrivals

More than 150 people have arrived in Australia from Gaza, some of them people who were on temporary visas.

A number of Australian charity organisations have been fundraising to support them during their stay because the government support for people on visitor visas is limited.

AusRelief has raised more than $151,000 of $300,000 to support about 60 people, some of them orphans and widows, for one month.

This included food, transport, linen, psychological and medical support as well as other everyday essentials.

“They are suffering from a lot of trauma. We have heard that a lot of the kids are shaken up by any sounds that they hear, even in a house in local Sydney,” AusRelief international project coordinator Zainab Ebrahim said.

“The phone has not stopped ringing ever since the war started and especially since the orphans and widows arrived.

“It’s overwhelming because our community wants to help a lot and there’s only so much we can do with them arriving so slowly.

“We’ve been getting people requests for people to donate clothing, furniture, food … some people have also reached out wanting to take out the people and give them a good time,” she said.

Ebrahim said that the transition to living in Australia will take some time because of the trauma they’ve experienced.