TRANSCRIPT
"I have to wake up every morning, go to study, knowing that I don't have a proper visa. I could be sent back to Sri Lanka at any point. I could be gone next week. I could be gone in two years. I'm worrying about my mum, I'm worrying about my visa situation. And then there's also university. So everything in my head, I feel like at one point I just want to explode."
That is 20 year-old nursing student Piume Kaneshan.
For her, the angst and uncertainty of young adulthood has been magnified by a lack of security about her place in Australia, where she's lived for most of her life.
As a seven-year-old, she, her mother and sister boarded a boat to flee her country of birth, Sri Lanka, fearing persecution in the years after its civil war in 2009.
In the process she was forced to leave her father behind.
12 years later and two years ago, due to the strict visa conditions on her family in Australia, they were not able to visit when he died due to liver cancer.
"We were having a funeral. Everyone was there, and I'm just watching on the video call and until the last moment when he was buried, I could not stop crying because even until my death, I'm not going to be able to see him. I don't want anyone to go through that."
She's one of about 9,000 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia more than a decade ago but remain stuck in a system that was designed to "fast track" their refugee claims.
It was a scheme set up by the then-Coalition government in 2014 for 31,000 people who arrived by boat before 2012, with those affected put on temporary visas while the process played out.
While in opposition, Labor was critical of the system but since coming to power, they have failed to provide a resolution for the thousands waiting for their situation to be settled.
About 19,000 people have been recognised as refugees but there remains a significant backlog in the program.
Jana Favero, from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, says this has put many in an incredibly precarious position.
"It's very hard for people who have been trapped in limbo who can't enjoy the same things as their peers who can't be in the community with certainty to have to wait. As a matter of urgency, we'd really like to see a pathway to permanency. They've been living in the community for the past 10 years and it's time for them to be able to rebuild their life with certainty."
A number of crossbenchers, including independent MP Allegra Spender and independent senator David Pocock, are calling on the government to end their decade-long wait.
SPENDER: "A lot of these people have made a big contribution or a lot of them came as, as young seven, eight, nine or ten-year-olds. They see themselves as Australian. And I think it's time to get them out of the slow lane. Let's make decisions and let everybody get on with their lives."POCOCK: "It's unfair on those young people, it's devastating for those young people who feel Australian, they want to live here, they love living here. They're grateful for the opportunity and they want to contribute."
The Immigration Minister declined an interview for SBS News but a spokesperson says "the government is committed to efficiently assessing each protection claim" and that the "protection system and the backlogs will take time to fix."
But while this time elapses, many migrants like Piume Kaneshan, who have lived most of their life in Australia, have to grapple with the possibility of being forced to return to a country that they have no connection to.
"I grew up in Australian culture. I forgot how to speak my language properly. I don't know how to write in my language. I don't know how to read in my language. I grew up here. I studied primary school, high school, college, and now going to university. everything I do is related to Australian culture, I believe that I am an Australian. So it's incredible - telling us to go back. It's scary because I don't know what I will do if I go back because I don't know anything that's got anything to do with Sri Lanka."
