“We didn’t expect the Australian government to do anything like this,” said Elliin,director of the Aknoon Cultural Centre,which provides social and cultural services for Sydney’s Iranian diaspora.
“It’s worse than anything Obama did,anything Trump did.”
Elliin,who was born in Iran and moved to Australia with wife Sohila,said the government’s proposals were tougher than former president Donald Trump’s controversial 2017 executive order that banned citizens from Muslim-majority countries – including Iran,Syria,Libya and Somalia – from entering the United States for 90 days.
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The government revealed the dramatic proposals on Tuesday afternoon and attempted to ram them through parliament by Wednesday night,shocking diaspora communities who could be swept up by the sweeping provisions. The timeframe was so short that the Coalition and the Greens united to slow the process down by referring the legislation to a Senate committee that will not report until May 7.
Elliin said his phone had been running hot with calls from confused community members seeking guidance on how the laws would work,and whether their relatives could be banned from entering the country.
“We are worried for the mental health of the community,” he said. “They are stressed,worried,talking to each other to work out what is going on.”