Advocates and churches vow to fight cuts to asylum seeker support

Community groups, refugee advocacy organisations and churches have vowed to throw open their doors in support of any refugees and asylum seekers cut off from government support or evicted as a result of changed visa rules.

“We’re not going to let these people starve. We’re not going to let these people go homeless,” the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s chief executive, Kon Karapanagiotidis, said after news of the changes emerged over the weekend.

“We’re not going to let these people go back to Manus and Nauru. We’re going to fight back. We together are going to rally again.

Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, told Guardian Australia there was “a small army of people” around the country who would would help asylum seekers and refugees with housing, income, legal representation or anything else they needed.

One hundred refugees and asylum seekers in Australia have been instructed to meet with the immigration department this week and have been told they will be issued with a “final departure bridging E visa” before being returned to Manus or Nauru.

They lost all government payments – currently $300 a fortnight – from Monday, and will be given three weeks to leave government-supplied housing. Refugees and asylum seekers will have access to Medicare and will be allowed to work, and children will be able to attend school.

But when the visa expires they will be expected to return to either Manus or Nauru, or abandon their protection claim and return to their country of origin.

The first 60 appointments began at 9am on Monday.

The 100 are among about 400 refugees and asylum seekers who have been brought to Australia from Manus and Nauru for medical treatment, including complex surgery and long-term mental health treatment, or to give birth. Some have been victims of rape and assault offshore.

The 400 also include 37 babies born in Australia.

Many of those in Australia have court orders requiring the government to give 72 hours’ notice if they are to be returned offshore. Courts across the country have been told that to forcibly send them offshore would be to “return them to danger”.

None of these court orders have been challenged by the government.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said asylum seekers and refugees had been exploiting the system in Australia, but that “the con is up”.

He told News Corp, “they were brought to Australia on the premise that once their medical needs were met they would return to Nauru or Manus.

“The medical care has been provided and through tricky legal moves they are now prevented from being returned to their country of origin, Manus or Nauru.”

At a press conference in Melbourne on Monday the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said it was “cowardly and cruel” to treat people who had come to Australia for medical treatment badly.

“Any person who’s sick and ill and requires Australian assistance in Australia should get that assistance. That’s not about politics, it’s just about being a decent human being.

“I say to you, Malcolm [Turnbull]: we want these people resettled in third-party nations, we want to see the US deal come off, we don’t want to see the people smugglers back in business. But do you really have to make a hero of yourself by mistreating in a weak, cowardly and cruel fashion the most vulnerable people in the world?”

According to the Australian National Audit Office it costs $573,000 to hold a single person in offshore detention for one year.

The auditor says it costs about $100,000 to house someone in community detention, and about $40,000 to have someone living on a bridging visa.

Speaking on Sydney radio 2GB on Monday, Dutton agreed with presenter Alan Jones that lawyers who represented asylum seekers in such cases were “un-Australian”, Fairfax Media reported.

The government has made it harder for refugees and asylum seekers requiring high-level medical care to get to Australia for treatment. More than 50 people – including three pregnant women – have been refused, or not even considered for, medical transfer, after doctors recommended they be moved off the island.

Rintoul said refugee advocacy organisations had been mobilised by the government’s sudden announcement of the new visa regimen, with offers of housing, income, food and other essentials.

“There is a whole army of people who have responded to this, organisations and individuals; there’s been an enormous response.”

On social media, people have offered rooms in their homes, food and clothing.

Tim O’Connor, from the Refugee Council of Australia, said refugees and asylum seekers living in the community – even those who had not received notices – feared they would be left destitute by this proposed change.

“People are terrified, these announcements cause great anxiety, because no one seems to know exactly who this is going to affect, or who’s going to be next. Our members are working with the people who have been affected to assist them, and trying to calm the anguish of those who won’t be affected but who fear they might be next. We’re seeking clarification on who is being targeted and we are co-ordinating with community groups, with lawyers, politicians and with the very vulnerable people directly under attack.”

Government “fact sheets” about the new final departure bridging visa have been sent only to single men and women so far. But the documents address the rights of children, giving rise to concern that family groups will be targeted next.

“We’ve already had generous Australians contacting us, wanting to offer financial and other support directly to those people affected.”

The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce acting executive officer, Caz Coleman, said the organisation was “definitely concerned” by the changed situation of asylum seekers and refugees in Australia.

“The removal of financial aid is a deep concern and we will be working to support people in any way.”

Hugh de Kretser, the executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre – which represents most of the affected people – described it as a “cruel new policy” designed to “coerce people back to danger”. He said the government must abandon the policy.

“These are people who came to our country seeking safety after fleeing persecution, enduring harm on Nauru and Manus and finally getting a chance to rebuild their lives,” de Krester said.

“This is an incredibly cruel policy and it seems that it’s a policy that will be applied to the entire group of 400 … this group includes women who were sexually assaulted on Nauru, men badly bashed on Manus and children so traumatised they’ve needed urgent medical assistance.

“These people finally have had the chance to rebuild their lives in the Australian community and some of them have been here for years.”

Natasha Blucher, the detention advocacy manager for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said people would be effectively left homeless, some with as little as $10 in their bank accounts. “Parents are desperately worried about how they will feed their children. It will end with children homeless.”

The opposition immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, earlier said Labor was reviewing whether it could reverse the decision, describing it as “cruel” and “heartless”.

“We will look at whether it is possible to disallow this in the Senate,” Neumann told ABC radio.

Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim said his party was exploring whether parliament could stop the measure.

“We will be taking advice about whether any aspect of what the government is proposing to do is disallowable,” McKim said. “And if it is, then we will move in the Senate on the first day back [in parliament] to disallow it.”