There are currently between 8,000-10,000 asylum seekers living in the Australian community awaiting decisions at different stages of their applications for protection visas and appeals procedures. Many of these asylum seekers are BVE holders and as such are denied work-rights, income support, and access to Medicare services. Some 750-900 such asylum seekers are estimated to be living in Victoria. This group includes children, elderly persons and single parents without any form of independent income. Many of these asylum seekers are living in conditions of abject poverty. Some have been released from detention on the basis of special needs relating to mental and physical health; many have special needs as a result of the experience of torture and trauma. There is currently no Government provision made to assist with these needs, to provide general or specialist health care, to facilitate a dignified transition into the Australian community, or to encourage a degree of self-reliance. As a result of their visa conditions, BVE holders are dependent upon charity organisations and face ongoing and spiralling difficulties with homelessness, cumulative debt, family breakdown and the exacerbation of existing health problems.

This situation persists despite Australia’s obligations under international law. Conventions and recommendations to which Australia is a party oblige it to provide basic living necessities and adequate health care to asylum seekers living in its territory and recommend that the provision of work-rights is in the best interests of both asylum-seekers and host states. These conventions oblige Australia to provide adequate care for children asylum seekers in particular. Currently, under the BVE regime, these obligations are not being met.