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Relatives of a 62-year-old Palestinian woman who fled Gaza say they have been left “distressed” after her visa was cancelled by Australia’s Department of Home Affairs.
Maha Almassri was taken from her home in Punchbowl in Sydney’s south-west at 5am on Thursday, and initially held in Bankstown police station before being transferred to Villawood detention centre, according to her family.
Almassri’s brother, Soliman, told SBS News the “family thought IDF [Israel Defense Forces] was at her door”.
“They just came like a bunch of police officers and some federal police, and they just stormed the house, and they had a search warrant, and they terrorised everyone inside the house,” Soliman said in a video message.
“What, [threat] is a 62-year-old lady to the Australian public?”
Maha Almassri’s brother said she has “trauma issues and back injuries”. Credit: Supplied
A document seen by SBS News shows that the Assistant Citizenship Minister Julian Hill “personally” made the decision to cancel Almassri’s visa.
Australia’s migration act grants its minister for home affairs — 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 (ASIO) assessed Almassri to be “directly or indirectly a risk to security” therefore deaming that she “objectively fails the character test”.
A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs told SBS News “the Government will not be commenting on this cancellation”.
“Any information in the public domain is being supplied by the individual and is not necessarily consistent with the information supplied by our intelligence and security agencies,” the spokesperson said.
“The Australian government doesn’t stop investigating new information about a visa holder just because they are onshore.”
SBS has also contacted Hill’s office for comment.
A small group led by Soliman gathered in protest outside the department’s building on Thursday, demanding Almassari’s release.
Almassari’s family said she arrived in Australia in February 2024 with her children on temporary visas and settled in Sydney’s south-west.
She is originally from a town near current-day Tel Aviv, before her family was forced to resettle in Gaza as a refugee in 1948, during Al-Nakba, which led to the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and ancestral lands.
Her family said some of her relatives were killed in Gaza during Israel’s subsequent assault in the strip following Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
“She finally managed to come to Australia, and now she’s seen as a threat … It’s undisclosed what they found on her,” Soliman said.
Her family said the visa of another relative of Almassri was cancelled just last week, who is also being detained at an immigration detention centre. SBS has not independently confirmed the claim.
Previous visa cancellation
This is not the first time a Palestinian visa has been cancelled in Australia.
But on 9 October 2024, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told parliament all visa cancellations relating to Palestinians from Gaza had “so far been offshore”.
Also in August 2024, Amnesty International accused Australia of the “rejection of over 7,000 Palestinians fleeing Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza”.
At that time, Mohamed Duar, Amnesty International Australia’s Occupied Palestinian Territory spokesperson, said: “The Department of Home Affairs has imposed severe restrictions on visa issuance for Palestinians fleeing the devastation in Gaza and cancelling visas on the grounds of perceived ‘security risks’.”
“All visa applicants are subjected to stringent security checks, a process that is inherently inadequate and unfair. These checks have become a barrier to those in desperate need of safety, further limiting the already inadequate response to the humanitarian crisis.”
