The Australian government has sought to reassure more than 3,300 Myanmar nationals in Australia that it won’t force them to return when their visas expire.
But despite mounting calls to provide greater reassurance to Myanmar nationals in Australia, Canberra has stopped short of across-the-board visa extensions or offers of asylum, insisting the issues will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Australia’s immediate past ambassador to Myanmar, Nicholas Coppel, told Guardian Australia the government needed to provide more security to visa holders, saying they were in “in limbo” and should be offered a pathway to permanent residency as “this crisis shows no signs of ending”.
With hundreds of civilians killed by security forces in Myanmar since the 1 February military coup, the Australian government has been urged to grant visa extensions similar to those given to Hong Kong nationals last year.
There were 3,366 visa holders from Myanmar in Australia at the end of February, government figures show, about half of them students.
Senior Labor frontbenchers have written to government ministers to say: “No one should be involuntarily deported to Myanmar if they don’t want to go back.”
In response to questions from Guardian Australia, a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said Myanmar citizens who wished to remain in Australia “should contact the department to ensure they are aware of the range of options available to extend their stay and remain lawful”.
“Australia is not considering removals given the current situation in Myanmar and the restricted travel options caused by Covid,” the spokesperson said.
Australia provided protection to individuals consistent with international human rights obligations, the spokesperson added, and “does not return individuals to situations where they face persecution or a real risk of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary deprivation of life or the application of the death penalty”.
The spokesperson said individuals who wished to seek Australia’s protection “may be granted permanent protection provided they are also able to fulfil the relevant visa criteria, which includes the health, character and security requirements that apply to all Australian visas”.
“However, each case is assessed on its individual merits and protection visa decisions are not based on broad assumptions about the safety in particular countries,” the spokesperson said.
April Khaing, a representative of the Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy, said the government needed to offer Hawke-government style amnesties and asylum to visa holders.
“This will ensure those currently residing in Australia are not required to return to Myanmar where they will face the violence and oppression of the military junta,” she told a parliamentary hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.
“We urgently request these amnesties to be extended to the immediate families of those already here to join them.”
Coppel, who served as Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2015 to 2018, said Australia should move quickly to give the small number of Myanmar nationals in Australia security over their futures.
The former envoy said an immediate announcement on the extension of all temporary visas held by Myanmar nationals should be followed by the establishment of a pathway to permanent residency, and said other countries had moved far more swiftly to reassure Myanmar nationals.
“There is a clear humanitarian argument: we cannot push these people to return to Myanmar,” Coppel said.
“But this crisis shows no sign of ending, we don’t know how or when it might end, and in the meantime, Myanmar nationals here are left in limbo. They can’t establish lives here, their employment prospects are limited, they need certainty, and I think it makes sense to establish a pathway to permanent residency for those who want it.”
Australia, too, Coppel said, needed to be more forceful in its advocacy for the release of Australian economist Sean Turnell.
He said Turnell was not a victim of hostage diplomacy: Myanmar was not looking to leverage Turnell in a dispute with Australia, but that the Myanmar military “totally wrongly” suspected Turnell of wrongdoing because of his close association with Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The Australian government should not be shy about being stronger in its calls for his release,” Coppel said.
“This is a brutal regime, they are bullies, the idea that quiet diplomacy, that softly, softly is going to be effective is laughable, the only thing they understand is brute force and very strong statements.”
Australian government officials have argued their response to the coup has involved “active, engaged and sustained diplomacy”.
Ridwaan Jadwat, who is in charge of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s southeast Asia division, brushed off criticism that a phone call between an Australian defence force leader and Myanmar’s deputy commander in chief had been used by the regime as a propaganda tool.
Jadwat said the call was made to express concern about Turnell and “there were elements of that call” that resulted in some additional contact with the detained Australian.
“But in no way are we seeking to legitimise [the military regime] and we will not ever do that. We will try to use our lines of communication with the regime where needed in a limited fashion to prosecute our national interests,” Jadwat said.