Highlights
- A new petition to Parliament is collecting signatures asking Canberra to add parents to the exemption category to travel to Australia.
- Thousands of families without support networks and with serious family and health problems, ask that their parents are allowed to come to Australia to help them.
- Greens Senator Nick McKim believes: "The government has been quick to implement its plans for the rich, the famous, the sports stars and the wealthy investors, who want to come to Australia."
The separation of families caused by Australia's strict border protocols as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense heartache for thousands.
A new petition set to be presented to Parliament is calling for parents to be placed on the exemption list to enter Australia.
Peruvian Valeria Greenfield is a spokesperson for the petition initiative. She was also involved in a similar petition that was filed in 2020 and rejected.
"[Home Affairs] Minister Peter Dutton told us that the Australian government was not considering family reunification at the beginning of the year, so it was denied," Ms Greenfield explained to SBS Spanish.
However, she and many others did not give up.
A new e-petition called, , is collecting signatures asking the federal government to add parents to the exemption category to travel to Australia.
It has so far surpassed 65,000 signatures.
The petition further requests that, if exemptions cannot be obtained for parents to come to Australia, that they consider introducing an exemption for people with relatives abroad, to be able to travel.
Valeria hoped her parents in Peru could come and help her raise her daughter. Source: Catalina Florez/SBS News
“We need a solution, if they cannot enter, let us leave, we cannot continue in this uncertainty. Until when? It's been 15 months,” Ms Greenfield says.
Permanent resident Paola Gonzalez is one of the thousands of people affected by this situation.
She lives in Canberra with her husband, a member of the Australian Air Force, and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Mia.
Paola Gonzales with her husband and daughter, Mia Source: Supplied
Ms Gonzalez’s mother, who lives in Bogotá, was left a widow in May 2020.
The family’s grief was compounded as Ms Gonzalez, an only child, was unable to travel to Colombia for the funeral.
Her mother was left alone in Bogota without close family by her side.
In addition, Ms Gonzalez has suffered from postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter, a situation that is aggravated since her husband is unable to assist due to his work commitments.
As his family lives in Tasmania, the distance makes it difficult to provide assistance.
Ms Gonzalez has lodged four requests for an exemption to bring her mother to Australia, citing compassionate grounds.
“We include letters from our doctors, from a psychologist, from my husband's boss… I am a single mother, a newcomer, with postpartum depression and mourning the death of my father whom I could not see due to the pandemic.
"But these reasons were not enough for the department to consider them compassionate and relevant,” she explains.
Diana Mozo, an Australian-Colombian living in Perth is experiencing a similar situation.
Her baby Jonty was born prematurely, and on top of that, she suffers from high blood pressure and is experiencing mental health issues.
Her husband's elderly parents cannot support them because they live in New Zealand.
Ms Mozo hired lawyers to help her apply for a waiver to bring her parents to Australia from Colombia, but to no avail.
Jonty, Diana Mozo's son, was born premature and spent three weeks in intensive care. Source: Supplied
She feels that the government's motives for making these decisions are "highly arbitrary".
"They do not give reasons (...) my lawyers told me that it is very difficult to know what they accept and that the probability will be less than one per cent, because sometimes they have accepted cases, although very, very rare," she says.
Diana Mozo with her husband and baby, Jonty Source: Supplied
'The government cannot continue to ignore this issue'
Greens Senator Nick McKim committed on Tuesday to present the petition in the Senate.
He previously told to SBS Spanish that his party is "disgusted by the way the Government has run our repatriation efforts, international border closure and Quarantine facilities”.
He claims that the government was "quick to roll out their plans for the rich, their plans for the famous, for the sports stars and for the wealthy investors", who want to come to Australia.
"Every day they refuse requests from parents of Australian citizens to come to Australia under 'compelling and compassionate' circumstances.
"And every day they refuse requests by Australian citizens to leave Australia under 'compelling and compassionatec circumstances.
"The Government has no plan for how to address these utterly heartbreaking situations", Senator MacKim says.
Mr McKim insists that "the Government cannot ignore this issue any longer. They need a concrete plan for how to reunite families, that have been separated for over 14 months now and with no real end in sight."
Greens Senator Nick McKim is pushing for an overhaul of the family reunion visa system. Source: AAP
Ms Greenfield is hopeful that the Government will take action this time around.
“I think there is going to be some kind of flexibility. I believe that family reunification should be a compelling and compassionate reason as listed on the Home Affairs page.
"And just as there have been many cases of people from abroad who have come: celebrities, actors, and athletes who have brought their families, and the government has been able to make everything work well, I think the same could be done to that our parents can come here."
Ms Mozo insists that her parents will comply with any directives implemented by the government.
"If it's time to quarantine we are more than happy to pay for the forty and follow all the necessary requirements to protect the entire population in Australia."
The petition is open till May 19.
