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Palestinian woman released from detention after Australian visa cancellation

Palestinian woman released from detention after Australian visa cancellation

SBS Australia5 days ago
A Palestinian woman detained for over a week following the cancellation of her visa has been released overnight. Maha Almassri was taken from her home in Punchbowl in Sydney's south-west at 5am last Thursday, and initially held in Bankstown police station before being transferred to Villawood detention centre, according to her family. Her Australian visa was cancelled by Assistant Citizenship Minister Julian Hill after failing the character test, according to a document seen by SBS News. A private Facebook post confirmed her release on Thursday night, which SBS News has verified with a source close to the family. Details of the release are unknown, and the status of her visa is unclear.
Australia's Migration Act grants its home affairs minister — or a chosen delegate — the right to cancel a person's visa on character grounds or if the cancellation is deemed to be "in the national interest".
The document stated that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation assessed Almassri to be "directly or indirectly a risk to security", therefore deeming she "objectively fails the character test". Alison Battisson, a lawyer acting for Almassri, declined to comment. SBS News contacted Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke's office for comment. "The government will not be commenting on this cancellation," a spokesperson for Burke told SBS News. "Any information in the public domain is being supplied by the individual or her family and is not necessarily consistent with the information held by our intelligence and security agencies."
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