Badraies granted protection visas

BY SARAH STEPHEN

After a two-year fight, the Badraie family, who fled to Australia from Iran in March 2000, have been granted refugee status and issued with temporary protection visas.

The Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) announced its decision on August 8, after being ordered by the full bench of the Federal Court to rehear the family's case.

On August 13 last year, a report by ABC's Four Corners exposed the plight of Shayan Badraie, then six years old, who had spent a year in the Woomera detention centre where he saw numerous suicide attempts.

When the family was moved to the Villawood detention centre, Shayan witnessed further self-harm attempts by fellow detainees. He stopped talking and eating, suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder. He was hospitalised numerous times.

The Badraies were facing deportation last May after a single Federal Court judge upheld the tribunal's decision that they should not be granted a visa.

In its April 8 decision, three Federal Court judges found the RRT had erred in assessing the Badraies' claims that they would be persecuted if they were returned to Iran.

The decision is a further blow to the government's argument that asylum seekers are using the courts to make "spurious" claims for protection, and to prolong their stay in Australia.

From Green Left Weekly, August 14, 2002.

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From GLW issue 504