5.2.1 Family separation and impact on family life “It’s been more than ten years since I was with my family. I can’t bear to think about it. It is too painful to talk about… My youngest child was a few months old when I first left to come to Australia. Now she is almost 11. My son is a teenager. I have missed their childhoods waiting on a better life for us all in Australia.” — Nasir* Without opportunities to study, work, or buy a home, stateless people reported being reluctant to start families or put down roots. In some cases, anxieties experienced by stateless people about their ability to settle and build a life in Australia mirrored their experience in their country of origin. “My dream is to buy a home for my family. For my family to live in safety. I’ve been here for ten years now and I still don’t have permanent protection. It is a long time.” — Hassan* The uncertainty imposed on stateless people by the existing migration legal and policy framework was observed by lawyers as impeding their client’s ability to build a life in Australia. “... it often leads to a result that clients who are unable to prove their identities are just stuck, some can’t be let out of detention for years, some are let out on bridging visas with very limited ability to settle, limited ability to technically start a life at all, in all the ways that word means. They’re reluctant to start families, they’re reluctant to build any sort of life for themselves after fleeing a certain country because they’re not sure if they’re able to settle.” “My main hope is to bring my family here to Australia. Over the years I’ve talked to my wife and kids. I try and be strong. I tell them, slowly change will come, there is a process. As soon as I can get the permanent visa, I will sponsor them. Thinking of this keeps us going, it gives us hope. The idea of being together again makes us happy. I want to be with my family. Families belong together.” — Nasir* “(For) family reunification, everything’s just harder and longer, trying to obtain documents for identity for family members if they’re also stateless. And ImmiCards need to be issued. That takes a really long time. They’re just at another disadvantage in their life, trying to reunite family.” — Carina Ford, Australian Legal Practitioner, Carina Ford Immigration Lawyers Family separation was further observed to have a serious and detrimental impact on stateless people in Australia by those who work closely with them. “Oh, they’re so, so sad, and then, often their families are stuck in really awful situations, either in country, or like the poor Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh—their families are stuck in these horrible situations, and all they want to do is bring them here, and they can’t, and they can’t visit them, and it’s just miserable—awful.” — Natalie Young, Australian Legal Practitioner, Victoria Legal Aid. — Australian Legal Practitioner Family separation, and prohibitions on the ability to sponsor loved ones to come to Australia was observed to have a devastating impact on stateless people interviewed for this study. “My mother and siblings are in a refugee camp. One is in Bangladesh, some are in Thailand. I’m desperate to visit my mother. She is getting very old now. But I’m not allowed to travel. I haven’t been able to contact her since I was in detention in 2014. I’m worried about her, I need to see her.” — Hassan, stateless father Family reunion under Australia’s existing legal framework was identified as particularly challenging for stateless people. This is particularly the case where parents may be separated from children (see, for example, Nasir’s* story in Appendix: Stories of Statelessness in Australia). Understanding Statelessness in Australia | Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness 61