Rafqa Touma Wed 27 Mar 2024 01.00 AEDT
A tourist visa is the only way in for hundreds of Palestinians seeking refuge, leaving them forced to rely on overwhelmed community organisations.
Salma* struggles to sleep at night.
As she lies on a donated bed in a stranger’s house in south-west Sydney, she is overwhelmed by memories of her siblings and the ill father she left behind in tents in Rafah, and the family homes in north Gaza that have now been destroyed. But those memories are not what keep her up.
“I’m very worried,” she tells Guardian Australia through an interpreter. “I can’t sleep from the stress, because I don’t have money to pay rent.”
Salma’s young daughter sits next to her in a purple summer dress in a sterile room at the Settlement Services International office in Liverpool.
By the end of the month the pair are likely to be homeless.
Read the full story at the Guardian Australia: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/26/gaza-palestine-immigrants-australia-cancelled-visas