Iranian refugee Hossein Latifi has been released from Melbourne’s Park hotel, along with nine other people, after nine years in immigration detention.
Latifi was released on Friday – his 33rd birthday. It was the first time in almost a decade he had been able to celebrate outside the walls of a detention centre.
“I spoke to Australian Border Force and I said ‘Where is my cake?’” he says.
As Latifi took his first steps outside detention he felt as if a huge weight had been lifted.
“When I was in detention, I felt like my mind was going to blow up,” Latifi says. “But when your feet are outside detention you feel a release. Like you’re born again.”
A fortnight ago, about 50 refugees and asylum seekers who were brought to Australia for medical treatment were being held in detention in Australia – including 18 in the Park hotel.
It’s thought about 30 medevac refugees and asylum seekers now remain in onshore detention.
Advocates estimate about 20 people were released on Friday from detention centres in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane but it has been difficult to get accurate data on the number of people still detained under the medevac laws.
Latifi says recent releases are “absolutely due to the upcoming federal election”. “I have a big hope that my friends will be released soon,” he says.
Latifi was first detained in 2013 when he was 24 years old after arriving in Australia by boat. He spent six years on Nauru before he was transferred to Australia for medical treatment in 2020.
Some of Latifi’s toughest years were on Nauru where he slept in a stifling tent crammed with other refugees and asylum seekers.
“There was no air conditioning. It was so hot, I felt like we were melting,” he says.
In the past few years at the Park hotel there has been a fire, a Covid-19 outbreak and allegedly maggots in dinners.
But it was the detention of tennis great, Novak Djokovic, at the facility earlier this year that brought the greatest media attention.
Latifi says his time in detention hardened him but there were moments when he felt overwhelmed by the uncertainty stretching in front of him.
“I’ve swallowed three razors, I hurt my arm and got seven stitches in 2019. I got five stitches in 2016 because the situation was very bad. Unbelievable,” he says. “You say, I’m done. After committing zero crimes, they still call you detainees. It affects you mentally.”
Sister Brigid Arthur, the project coordinator of the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project, says when refugees are released they still face uncertainty. They receive temporary bridging visas, a small amount of money and two weeks’ accommodation.
She says without comprehensive assistance from the government it falls on the wider community to step in and provide support.
“We’ve housed between 40 and 50 people and we’re a small non-for-profit organisation that relies on donations,” Arthur says. “They need to be able to access the services [such as Centrelink] that are available to Australians.”
The staggered releases have left asylum seekers questioning why some are freed while others are left behind.
“There’s no rhyme or reason about who is released. You can’t work out any pattern,” Arthur says. “We will never undo long-term detention. It’s been so cruel. But it’s amazing how resilient so many of them are.”
The minister for home affairs, Karen Andrews, said on Friday that “Australia has some of the strongest border protection arrangements in the world”.
“This government’s agreement to resettle refugees in New Zealand demonstrates once again that there is no path to settlement in Australia if you come illegally by boat,” she said.
The Department of Home Affairs said “it does not comment on individual cases” when asked about Latifi’s release.
“Individuals released from immigration detention are provided transitional support through the status resolution support services program including case worker support, accommodation and financial assistance,” a spokesperson said.
The department said “the final departure bridging visa” enables asylum seekers to reside in the community “while they make plans to depart Australia”.
For Latifi, even the little things like going for a walk and getting a coffee are healing.
“You are free. No more security … and when I call my mum, she’s going to cry,” he says.
“So many people have told me that I should be proud of myself [for surviving] and I told them I am. I don’t want to live in my past. I have to start my new life – my dream.”
Latifi hopes to be resettled in New Zealand but could be excluded from the Australia-NZ refugee deal because he previously engaged with the US resettlement pathway.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
