The pandemic put everyone in limbo. For the first time, many Australians understood what it meant to be stranded, unable to cross borders, separated from loved ones. The federal government said we were ‘all in this together’ – but what about th

Part 7: Does Australia’s asylum seeker policy actually work?

Dec 17th, 2020 22m

In part 7 of Temporary we meet Hani. Back in 2013, with Operation Sovereign Borders, the Australian government launched an outright war on asylum seekers, condemning 30,000 people seeking safety to mandatory detention and temporary protection,

Part 6: Stuck in an endless loop

Dec 14th, 2020 21m 44s

One family. All devout pacifists, they all fled the same dangers and all of them are recognised refugees in Australia. The mother and children were resettled from overseas and now have permanent protection. But their father arrived by boat. He

Part 5: When the answer is no

Dec 9th, 2020 26m 58s

In part 5 of Temporary we meet Arman, whose claim for asylum was rejected because the Australian government thought it was safe for him to return to Afghanistan. This is no longer the government’s view, yet due to the way the appeal system work

Part 4: A lifetime locked in detention

Dec 5th, 2020 26m 31s

Every one of the 30,000 asylum seekers in Australia’s ‘legacy caseload’ was detained. The average time spent in detention is 564 days but some people have been detained for more than a decade. In this episode of Temporary, we meet Kumar, who wa

Part 3: How do you say goodbye forever?

Dec 2nd, 2020 24m 39s

In part three of the Temporary podcast we meet Elaheh, who had to suddenly flee Iran, not realising she might never see her family again. Now a recognised refugee in Australia with a young son, her visa’s restrictions dictate whether her son wi

Part 2: No right to study, no right to work

Nov 25th, 2020 24m 13s

In episode two of Temporary we continue Zaki’s story. Labelled an ‘illegal maritime arrival’, how did he negotiate hunger, the Sydney property market and a visa that wouldn’t let him work or study in Australia to become an award-winning student

Part 1: How Australia put 30,000 people in limbo

Nov 25th, 2020 28m 33s

In the first part of the Temporary podcast we meet Zaki, who fled a Taliban death warrant when he was a teenager to find somewhere safe. Instead, he found himself impounded in the politics of fear that Australian leaders have been stoking for d

Introducing Temporary

Nov 18th, 2020 3m 14s

The stories of people seeking asylum are supposed to end. But in Australia, people who arrive by boat are seldom able to finish their story. This new eight-part narrative podcast reveals the stories of refugees trapped in a cycle of uncertainty

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