The pandemic has stopped travel, closed borders and halted deportations — meaning some immigrants facing removal from Australia are asking for their visas back instead.
Asylum seekers protest over coronavirus fears at an inner city Brisbane hotel used as a detention centre.
In several cases, the government has admitted that travel restrictions mean deportations are unlikely to happen in the near future. That means those without a visa will face longer spells in immigration detention — a factor that has weighed in favour of people getting their visas back., with the tribunal finding that the effects of the coronavirus weighed in his favour.
Medcalf told the tribunal he was “very scared and worried” about being"stuck in detention indefinitely", because if COVID-19 came to detention it would “spread like wildfire”. The government had conceded that it was unlikely he would be deported in the immediately foreseeable future., brought in by guards or other staff from the outside world.and advocates to release detainees to reduce the public health risk.
Senior tribunal member Dr Michelle Evans-Bonner found that the pandemic meant Medcalf would likely be detained for longer than he otherwise would have been. . In late February, the virus was sweeping through China and infections in Italy, Iran and South Korea were increasing. Tribunal member Tigiilagi Eteuati agreed that the risk of coronavirus infection was higher in China than in Australia, but that the number of infections was relatively small and that the man came from a province far away from the epicentre in Wuhan.
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