Thirteen people have been released from immigration detention in Australia on Friday including nine men held in Melbourne’s Park Hotel.
Refugee advocates say the men were freed without any explanation for their release, after some of them had spent up to nine years in detention.
Muhammad Jamal said he and eight others had been allowed to leave the Park Hotel in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton.
“Today me and eight other get released from park hotel with the help of community support but still some of our friends are locked inside,” he tweeted on Friday evening.
“Please @ScottMorrisonMP release all my remaining friends.”
The Refugee Action Collective said eight xjmtzywof the men had been given six-month bridging visas and one placed on a community detention visa.
RAC spokesman and activist Chris Breen said their release was welcome but they should never have been detained in the first place.
“They have been released just to a cheap motel in Melbourne’s western suburbs. They’ve been dumped there on a long weekend without any support,” he said.
“They have no access to welfare so these are people who have been traumatised by detention. They haven’t been able to get education or work and build skills.”
Mr Breen said there were about 50 people still detained across Australia including 18 men at the Park Hotel.
He said another person was released from a different detention centre in Melbourne on Friday, as well as three people who were released from a centre in Brisbane.
It isn’t known what paperwork these four former detainees have been put on but they are believed to be on similar, temporary visas.
It is understood a bridging visa allows a person to reside lawfully in the Australian community while they make arrangements to depart the country.
The visa does not provide a pathway to settlement in Australia.
A spokesman for the Department of Home Affairs said it did not comment on individual cases.
“The Australian government’s policies have not changed and illegal maritime arrivals will not be settled in Australia,” he said.
“Individuals released from immigration detention are provided transitional support through the Status Resolution Support Services program including case worker support, accommodation and financial assistance.”
Scott Morrison declined to comment on the matter when he was asked about it at a press conference in NSW on Saturday morning.
“I will leave that to the Home Affairs Minister,” he said.
Australia’s tough asylum seeker policies came under an international spotlight earlier this year when tennis star Novak Djokovic was briefly held in immigration detention with the other detainees at the Park Hotel.
