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Near, at long last, to a happy ending

It is a tribute to journalist Andra Jackson of The Age - who took up the former Australian Government's treatment of so-called illegal immigrants and their imprisonment - that she can, today, report on the "success" of one such immigrant in his quest to be allowed to stay in Australia. What he has been through remains an indictment of PM Howard and Ministers Ruddock, Vanstone and Andrews who allowed the former Government's policy to be in place, and then, administered it in such an inhuman, indecent and inhumane way.

"Coming to Australia after 18 months held in the Manus Island detention centre — 10 of them by himself — Aladdin Sisalem felt he had finally found a new beginning.

Instead, the stateless Kuwaiti-born Palestinian found that he had merely exchanged one form of living in limbo for another. He was placed on a temporary protection visa that banned him from applying for permanent protection for five years.

He has spent the past four years not knowing if he would have to uproot himself and try all over again to find another country to take him at the end of next year.

It is only now, after a change of government, that a relieved Mr Sisalem has been told his wait has been cut short by a year. He can apply immediately for permanent residency in Australia."

Read on here to complete The Age report.

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