Belonging nowhere: Stateless in Australia

SBS Australia

06-05-2025

Because statelessness can be a result of war or mass displacement of people, it's often perceived as being something that happens beyond our borders. But experts say Australia perpetuates statelessness within its own borders. In this final episode of belonging nowhere we look deeper into the issue, and how statelessness can be resolved. Gus Kuster's case made headlines around the world. He was born in Papua New Guinea in 1978 and raised in Australia from the age of four. His father was a white-Australian defence force veteran, and his grandmother on his mother's side was a Torres Strait Islander. But when he was a teenager he started to engage in criminal behaviour. 'Things weren't right at home and at school. I ran with the older guys, wrong crowds and things started falling apart a bit there. It led me to getting on drugs. And yeah, that's when things started spiraling a bit. I was only very young. But it was the community I was in, the society I was in, that's how I learnt. I learnt all this in Australia.' He has been convicted of serious criminal offences including for drugs, dangerous driving, assault and breaching domestic violence orders. In his final term of imprisonment in 2017, he was warned that his permanent residency visa could be cancelled. 'I didn't know that I had a permanent residency. All I knew was l I was Australian, and it wasn't until I got incarcerated that they came and told me. They said your permanent resident visa is being cancelled.' Then in 2019, his whole place in Australia changed. 'They flew me to New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, and when I arrived, when we landed, just as I'm walking off with the guards, the officials came onto the plane and they were very angry and started screaming at me, saying 'you're not getting off this plane. You're not getting off this plane.' And, yeah, just losing their minds, actually, and saying 'you're going back, you're not staying here, we don't want Australia dumping their rubbish in our country.' They ended up taking all my luggage, left my luggage there in Papua New Guinea. No one retrieved it, so we ended up turning around coming back to Australia, and yeah, by that time it was all over the news and stuff.' He was held in indefinite immigration detention when he arrived back in Australia - and stayed there for years. 'I forget things now, because that's what that place does to you. Like, you know, I try to think of things and I can't remember and something I've talked about to psychologists and counsellors about that, you know, it's I was forgetting my birthday at one at one point, I forgot how old I was, because when you're stuck being stateless in indefinite detention, I was never getting out. So my mind was starting to go places and and you just forget things because you can't think properly, because you don't know who you are any more you know, and you get treated like you're animals.' But after a High Court ruling in November 2023, Gus Kuster was one of the detainees who was released. 'The High Court has ruled that it is unlawful for the federal government to detain people indefinitely in immigration detention where there is no real prospect they could be removed from Australia in the foreseeable future. The landmark case reverses a 20-year-old precedent, and paves the way for the release of dozens of detainees still locked up.' More than a year later, he is still healing. 'I've been trying to get the proper help that I need. I've been struggling. I'm still struggling with it, and it's hard for me to even remember stuff, to do what I'm supposed to do, and it's hard for me to go out some places and be around people and I just get bad anxiety. And, you know, I've got some more more medication for depression and kind of stuff.' He's staying with his parents now back in Caboolture, Queensland. But apart from family support, trying to get to get back on his feet is an ongoing challenge. 'I'm still, actually not free. I can't do what I want. I can't go anywhere without informing someone. I can't get any job that I like because there's certain conditions that I'm under. So it's hard to fit in because, yeah, if I if I wanted a job doing this or that, it not some of the jobs I cannot do because they say that I may be a terrorist, and I can't apply for jobs with certain things, which makes it hard because so I don't really feel like I'm fitting in with the community at the moment, because I'm not getting that.' Mr Kuster is on bridging visa R, which still leaves his future place in Australia uncertain. Alison Battison is the director principal and founder of Human Rights for All. She has represented Gus Kuster, as well as refugees, asylum seekers and other stateless people. 'I do think statelessness is a big issue in Australia. I think it's an enormous issue in relation to people who are stuck in immigration prison - or who have been stuck in immigration prison because any lack of identification documents, or if a person is not believed in their protection claim, or they're found not to be owed protection but they are stateless, or perhaps they have a criminal record - then up until the case last year NZYQ, at the end of 2023, they faced indefinite administrative detention.' Ms Battison says the issue of stateless people on temporary visas can be fixed, but leaving people in a state of limbo can have a deeper effect on Australia's stateless population. 'I think the UN and society, global society, has to keep focusing on on statelessness and address it as an issue in Australia. It is solvable. It is easily solvable. Give stateless people permanent visas. I mean, it just makes sense. Otherwise, again, you're going to have this underclass of people who aren't fully connected to society, and that is a dangerous way for society to go you do not want underclasses solely, you know, for these sorts of reasons, and the psychological impacts on such people and their families, where, when no country wants you, means no country looks after you. And psychologically that's that's very difficult to come to terms with.' Professor Katie Robertson is the director of the Stateless Legal Clinic, which is the country's first national legal service for stateless people, both children and adults. She highlights that while there is a protection for children born in Australia to stateless parents to apply for citizenship, it's still a battle with the legal system. 'Stateless families having children who were not actually aware that their child was entitled to make an application for Australian citizenship. And then when they found out about that entitlement, the process for applying for citizenship is incredibly arduous, and administratively burdensome, it's really not set up for people to navigate that process without a lawyer.' 'Imagine living in a world that cannot see you. A world that doesn't recognise you. Unable to do things others take for granted. Like working, studying, going to a doctor, opening a bank account or even buying a simcard. This is life for millions of stateless people all around the world. This can change. Statelessness is solvable. With political will and action from states. It's possible for everyone to get a nationality.' The I Belong campaign was launched in November 2014 by the United Nations. it aimed to end statelessness within ten years, by identifying and protecting stateless people, resolving existing situations and preventing possible new cases. A UN Refugee Agency report last year highlights that since its inception, more than half a million people around the world have now acquired citizenship. There is now a global alliance to end statelessness, which consists of the UN, regional bodies and governments including Australia. In Australia, stateless people are not officially counted, or part of the census. Ms Battison says there could be more stateless people in the country than there is recorded. 'There certainly is. And that is for a variety of reasons. And one of the the main reasons is that the way the Department of Home Affairs and immigration classifies people as being stateless is flawed. And here in particular, I'm thinking about Kurdish people from Iran and Iraq, who are often classified as being Iraqi or Iranian, or at least eligible to apply for citizenship of those countries when many of them just cannot.' Amit Sen is the senior statelessness officer for UNHCR's bureau for the Asia-Pacific region who has been part of policy making for stateless people. In an exclusive interview with SBS News, he says there is an urgency for Australia to have a stateless determination procedure, as they pledged to more than 10 years ago in 2011. A statelessness determination procedure contributes to efforts to assess the size and the situation of the stateless population among migrant populations. It can also help reduce the risk that stateless persons will be arbitrarily detained or spend prolonged periods in detention. 'There is some degree of urgency. this is an issue that can be solved really quickly when the right set of activities align. So people realise how vulnerable and difficult it is to be stateless and how it impacts not only children but families and successive generations, and this is something that's fully within our ability to eradicate. It would be exciting for this to start now. I mean, I think now is a good time.' Mr Sen also says it would also be important to follow with introducing stateless visas. 'What we think would be really ideal would be to create a third visa category, protection visa for stateless people, and how Australia would elect to do that, or the process of the procedure, they have complete discretion. I think that our view is that the good sequencing would be to first establish the statelessness determination procedure, which they took the positive step of pledging to do in 2011 Yeah. And I think a protection visa for stateless people would be extremely positive.' But Mr Sen also told SBS he hopes statelessness could be resolved within a decade. 'It's so immediate, it impacts people's lives on every single level. And what we really want is to have a global sense of ownership. But from people in media especially to say, Okay, this is something that's solvable. It impacts people's lives in enormous ways. And it's a priority, it's important. It's something that we, you know, we, we're also invested in, yeah, maybe I'm a little a little ambitious, but I think it's solvable.' A report has now been released by the Australian Human Rights Commission on Gus Kuster versus the Commonwealth. They set out findings and recommendations on his case, including that any person in detention who claims to be Indigenous should be considered for an alternative to held detention while their claims are assessed. They also recommended that the Australian Government should introduce a formal statelessness status determination procedure and a clear visa pathway to permanent residency should be established for stateless persons who are found not to be refugees or otherwise owed protection. SBS News contacted the Department of Home Affairs and Immigration, which responded with a statement saying Australia remains concerned by instances of protracted statelessness and profound discrimination, particularly within the Indo-Pacific region. It says the Australian Government is currently considering how best to target its involvement in the Global Alliance, activities for which are still under development. A department spokesperson says between program years 2017-2018 and 2023-24, a total of 846 offshore humanitarian visas were granted to stateless applicants. But the department was unable to respond to questions about having a stateless determination procedure or having a protection visa category for stateless people. Meanwhile, as Gus Kuster keeps trying to settle back in the country, he says he does not know when he will feel like he is part of Australia again. 'I don't feel like I belong here because of the way they treat me. I know I belong here, but I don't feel like it right now. I feel like I'm being punished still. I still feel like it's the same as I was in there.' He hopes he can one day get his permanent residency back again, or gain Australian citizenship. 'I don't see how I'm not Australian. I just don't understand it. I still don't understand it, and I will, I will never forget what's happened because of it just doesn't make sense, and it's not right. I just don't understand how they can do this to me.' If you or someone you know needs support, call Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For culturally appropriate Indigenous support you can also call 13 YARN.. a 24 hour national telephone helpline on 13 92 76 which provides support across a range of issues including mental health.