The Australian government is set to grant bridging visas for displaced Ukrainians who arrive after its humanitarian visa cut off date of July 31.
The move comes after a previous, two-week extension of the cutoff date was made, moving the day from July 14 to July 31. Before Thursday’s announcement, a policy created by the previous government meant Ukrainians arriving after July faced only having the option of tourist visas, restricting them from working, having access to Medicare or rental assistance, and in turn, becoming completely reliant on volunteers.
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Immigration minister Andrew Giles said Australia would provide both short-term and long-term visa options. Both Bridging and Protection visas will be available to Ukrainian nationals.
Many from the Ukrainian-Australian community feared the cutoff date would have meant they wouldn’t have been able to reunite with loved ones, or start the lives they’d planned in Australia.
Bela Arutyunova, her spouse Oksana, and their twins Simona and Alex, fled Kyiv in February after being woken in the middle of the night to rocket attacks. Bela, pregnant and with a history of epileptic attacks, told VICE her fear for her children took over.
“This is a very strong feeling,” she said.
“It’s an animal instinct that makes you move forward and run away from danger. I remember a photo of an animal covering its child from a photographer’s lens clicking, and the sound bringing fear into their eyes.”
Heavily pregnant, Bela and her family drove to the Polish border and then to a Russian-speaking district of Berlin, Charlottenburg. They were searching for a temporary place to reside before returning home.
“We spent three days in our car, running away from the ‘grey wolves’, as we explained to the children.
“[Russian authorities] touched my belly, checking if I was really pregnant.
“By that time, I was completely swollen from the long trip full of traffic jams and roadblocks. My only dream was to wash up and go to bed.”
Bela says the Ukrainian consulate in Berlin denied her future child Ukrainian citizenship, as Ukraine still doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage.
“We decided to move on,” she said. “Anything to keep the baby from Russian citizenship”.
In March, a former colleague of Bela wrote to her, telling her to come to Australia. While the family applied for a tourist visa, they faced long delays. As a stopgap, they accepted a visa to Canada as a temporary solution. Bela was about eight months pregnant, so her plan was to give birth in Canada and then come to Australia where her colleague could help her family.
With Bela due to give birth at the end of July, it would have been impossible for the family to arrive on Australian soil before 31 July, and humanitarian visa applicants must be physically within Australian borders to be eligible.
“We are glad that our girl will be born in Canada and will avoid my Russian citizenship. But we would also like to get to our destination, Australia,” she said.
“We have an incomprehensible status, we are not tourists, not refugees. Ukrainians have received a lot of help in different countries, and this is often a reproach from former migrants: ‘it was more difficult for us, you have much more help than we did’.
“But you did not run away from rockets and bullets. You did not live in bomb shelters. You sold your property and consciously left for another country. We do not know where we will end up, or if we will see our relatives and friends alive again. We just want to live and return to our previous level in life.”
With the government’s bridging visa announcement, Bela and her family hope to reignite their plan to start a new life in Australia.
Marina, from Kharkiv, is in Australia on a student visa while her partner Oleh is still in Ukraine. Oleh has been applying for a tourist visa to reunite with Marina in Australia, but there are long delays. Before Thursday’s announcement on the extension, Marina said the fear of Oleh not making it in time was making her depressed.
“We haven’t seen each other for almost half a year,” Marina told VICE.
“We’re missing all our important dates. We miss spending time together.
“I feel depressed, because my partner is stuck in Ukraine while he has an opportunity to be safe with me in Australia.
“I cannot study properly because I’m thinking about him all the time. We never know what place is going to be bombarded next.
Marina says she wasn’t the only one who would have been affected by the visa cutoff date.
“I’m volunteering here, in Melbourne. I’m helping Ukrainian displaced people and I know that many families are separated right now.
“It’s a challenging and stressful journey. Nevertheless, Ukrainian people are ready to go to Australia. We really need it. We really need to run from war to safety. And we’re asking the Australian government to hear our request.”
After catching wind of the government’s extension, Marina said she was relieved.
“The news of the visa extension is a relief.
“With the situation in Ukraine getting worse every day, it means more of our families and our friends can find safety,” she said.
Ukrainian- Australian Dasha Brailko says the cutoff date meant she would not have been reunited with her father, who has been waiting for the right opportunity to leave Ukraine for Australia.
“I am a Ukrainian-born Australian citizen and I was devastated by the recent decision by the Australian government to cut-off access to humanitarian visas for those fleeing Ukraine,” Dasha said.
“My father was directly impacted. He lives in Berdiansk (Zaporizhzhya region) in the South-East of Ukraine (90 km from Mariupol) and since the fourth day of the war, it’s been occupied by the Russian army.
“There has been limited fighting in Berdiansk to date, and so he decided to stay where he was because it’s dangerous, and scary, crossing the front line back into Ukrainian-controlled territory. He’s been waiting for a safe opportunity to travel west where we are planning to arrange flights for him to join us in Sydney.
“Without a humanitarian visa, he can only stay three months without any medical or financial support…this also means he will need to go back for the Ukrainian winter where he has no gas or heating, with the temperatures regularly getting to -15 degrees celsius.
Dasha said that while she’s still anxious for her father, she’s happy to see the Australian government’s shift in stance towards displaced Ukrainians.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs told VICE that Australia was committed to showing “global leadership” in its refugee intake.
“Australia’s resettlement program intake has been drawn from a range of nationalities, ethnic and religious groups. The program operates flexibly to respond to evolving humanitarian situations in the context of record levels of global displacement.”
Kateryna Argyrou, Co-Chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO), told VICE that over 8500 Ukrainian nationals had been granted temporary visas, but only 4300 of the had arrived in Australia,
“We have many women and children already here in Australia that are waiting to be reunited with their husbands and fathers, some of whom are on the front lines defending Ukraine or being held in occupied territories.
“It is important not to forget about them.”
