An asylum seeker who has been locked up for seven years in immigrant detention centers in Australia was yesterday offered a visa that could see him set free within days, the government has announced.
Peter Qasim, who claims to be from the Indian part of disputed Kashmir region, has been in detention longer than any other asylum seeker locked up under Canberra's mandatory detention policy.
Supporters say Qasim cannot be deported because he has no passport or other papers proving his nationality, and Delhi no longer considers him an Indian citizen.
INVITATION
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said Qasim has been invited to apply for a visa that will allow him to live and work in the country and receive subsidized health care and other benefits.
Qasim was earlier this month moved to a psychiatric unit in Adelaide for treatment for mental health problems that refugee activists say are a result of his long incarceration.
Vanstone said the length of time it takes for Qasim to be released from detention is up to him and some routine checks.
"It depends on Mr. Qasim accepting the visa, and I assume it would depend on what arrangements he wants to make with his health advisers," Vanstone told reporters.
"There would be health and character checks ... that we hope won't take long," she added. "We are wanting to do this as quickly as we possibly can."
Qasim is the highest profile of 50 long-term detainees invited by the immigration department to apply for a visa to remain in Australia.
POLICY SHIFT
Yesterday's announcement followed a government decision to relax Australia's mandatory detention policy by allowing entire families to stay in houses outside detention centers.
Previously mothers had been allowed to stay with their children outside prison-like detention camps, but fathers were forced to stay behind the razor wire-topped fences.
The policy change was brokered by Prime Minister John Howard and a group of lawmakers who were campaigning to allow child asylum seekers and their parents out of detention.
Earlier this month, human-rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized Canberra's policy of mandatory detention as causing the separation of families.
RSS