Significantly, stateless children were also found to have missed crucial education while held in immigration detention. “My kids missed lots of their education while we were in detention. While we were detained in Queensland they weren’t able to go to school. There was another family in the detention centre—their children would go out to school each day. But my kids couldn’t—I didn’t understand the difference. I asked the Department officer “Please let my son and daughter go to school.” But they didn’t. I didn’t understand why. This made me feel so sad. Because when we were living in Malaysia they also couldn’t go to school. I wasn’t allowed to go to school when I was a kid either and now this was happening to my children.” — Hassan* 5.1.3 Access to healthcare and disability support The short-term nature of temporary visas; particularly ‘Bridging Visas’ with a usual length of six months, were found to be a particular barrier to consistent and stable access to healthcare. Many stateless participants interviewed for this Report reported experiencing a ‘gap’ in their ability to access funded healthcare (including Medicare) for weeks at a time in between one temporary visa expiring and the new one being issued. Some people interviewed had been on a series of rolling short-term temporary visas for almost ten years. “Every time the Bridging Visa would expire, our Medicare card would expire. This was especially hard for my wife who has diabetes. The Medicare card would expire and I’d have to go to the Centrelink office, sort out all this paperwork because my wife needed medical treatment. The constantly expiring visas made it hard for my wife to get medical treatment when she needed it.” — Hassan* For one stateless participant interviewed, financial restraints means that family members simply cannot access medical care when they are between temporary visas. “Every time our visa expires there is a gap until the next one is issued. Sometimes it is days, sometimes weeks before the next one comes. We don’t have Medicare in this time—which means we simply don’t see a doctor. Every six months it is the same. The visa ends and we reapply.” — Yasmin* Barriers to healthcare were observed to be particularly restrictive where family members (including children) had complex needs stemming from disability. “My youngest child has Australian citizenship because he was born here. But my two older children were born in Malaysia. They can’t get citizenship. This is particularly hard for my daughter. She has complex needs requiring support. Her teacher suggested we access support through National Disability Insurance Scheme. But without citizenship we can’t. And we can’t afford to pay for the support she needs.” — Hassan* Amir, another (formerly) stateless adult interviewed for this Project spoke about the additional challenges he faced accessing critical disability support due to the temporary nature of his visa. “Some of the difficulties I faced as a blind, stateless person in Australia include not being able to access governmentfunded disability support services like half-price taxis and guide dogs. As someone seeking asylum, you’re not eligible for any equipment to enable your independence. Luckily, Guide Dogs Victoria helped me get a guide dog, Lainie through their philanthropic program. However, Lainie’s training and expenses were not funded by the government. Because of the lack of disability support when I was on my temporary visa, I experienced additional barriers in pursuing work and education. I had a scholarship to study and didn’t have a Braille laptop. I didn’t have a software called JAWS that made computer documents accessible for me. Luckily, I had people donate some of these things to me so I could study.” — Amir 5.1.4 Access to employment and the dignity of work “(Working) allows me to keep my dignity, in a nutshell. And for someone like me—maybe it’s my cultural background—when you take that away from me, you might as well kill me.” — Fadi Stateless people interviewed for this research reported having prohibitions placed on their ability to work or more recently expiring severely restricted opportunities for employment due to the shortterm nature of their temporary visa. “Eventually we were given a bridging visa. My husband is allowed to work. He drives for Uber. He has to drive long hours, seven days a week just to keep us afloat. It means we don’t have time together as a family. But he works hard to provide for our family. Getting something more permanent is too hard, as his visa expires every six months. Employers don’t want to take him on as there is too much paperwork, and the visa is too short term.” — Yasmin* Understanding Statelessness in Australia | Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness 57