Sydney family of detained Palestinian woman plead with home affairs minister over visa cancellation

‘We need our auntie back, we need her freedom,’ says cousin of Maha Almassri, who was moved to Villawood detention centre after pre-dawn raid

The family of a Palestinian grandmother detained in Sydney by immigration authorities after a pre-dawn raid have pleaded with the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, for answers about her visa cancellation and “real representation” to secure her freedom.

Maha Almassri, 61, was on Thursday morning awoken by border force officers at her son’s home in western Sydney. She had fled Gaza in February 2024 and entered Australia on a visitor visa shortly afterwards. She was granted a bridging visa in June 2024 after applying for a protection visa.

Almassri was moved to Villawood detention centre on Thursday, after being told that her bridging visa had been cancelled after she failed a character test.

According to the Migration Act, a person does not pass the character test if they have been assessed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) to be a direct or indirect risk to security.

On Saturday, Mohammed Almassri, Maha’s cousin, told Guardian Australia the family had been given no further information by the government explaining why she was detained and the nature of the threat she posed to national security.

Addressing Burke – the local member for Watson, where Almassri’s son lives – directly, Mohammed pleaded for his cousin’s freedom.

“We need our auntie back, we need her freedom. She left Gaza [because of] the war and now you put her in detention – that’s not right,” he said. “Why did she fail the security check? Answer our question, please, Tony Burke.”

He said the family and Muslim community felt let down by its local member.

“When he won, we thought he would represent our community,” Almassri said, adding the family was concerned about his cousin’s physical and mental health as she remains in Villawood.

“We all worry about her because she feels alone, she feels down, she doesn’t know what to do. The situation is horrible for her. She’s crying all the time. I feel so sorry about her.”

In a statement released on Friday, the family, led by Maha’s brother-in-law, Soliman Almassri, said its members had voted for Burke after “advice from community elders that minister Tony Burke [was] the best candidate to represent our community in the current climate”.

“We would like to see real representation of our family and an effective resolution to this dilemma,” they said.

They said Almassri “remains perplexed about the dawn raid” and they “continue to comfort and reassure her that she is in a peaceful country where a fair justice system prevails”.

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Some media coverage of Maha’s detention had spawned some “vile anti-Muslim” sentiment, they said, urging the matter to be dealt with “in accordance with human rights”.

They said two other Palestinians from Gaza had also been detained by immigration authorities after raids, one of whom was understood to have been detained on Monday. Mohammed said neither was related to his family.

Burke’s office did not add to remarks made on Thursday, when the minister said he would not be commenting on the visa cancellation and that the information provided by the family was “not necessarily consistent with the information supplied by our intelligence and security agencies”.

On Friday, the shadow home affairs minister, Andrew Hastie, questioned the thoroughness of the security checks that had resulted in Almassri’s visitor visa being granted.

“Tony Burke himself has said that no country in the world would send people back to Gaza at the moment. So what is the government’s plan here? Australians deserve to know,” he said.

The Almassri family’s pleas come after a pro-Palestinian demonstration in western Sydney on Friday afternoon, which was attended by about 150 supporters.

The protest, which one attender said was policed by about 50 police officers, took place outside SEC Plating in Belmore, the location of a scuffle that on 27 June left former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas in hospital with a serious eye injury.