Zuhria Al Hattab faces visa uncertainty for 1,700 Palestinians — Sbs Australia
sbs australia reports that Zuhria Al Hattab, a 34-year-old primary school teacher who fled bombardment in northern Gaza, is living in Perth on a temporary visa after arriving in 2024. She is among about 1,700 Palestinians in Australia who hold temporary visas with no guaranteed pathway to permanent residency.
Al Hattab crossed through Egypt after leaving Gaza, and her journey included a $10,000 passage through the Rafah border crossing with her wounded brother, Mohammed. She said of the escape southward: “The whole road was blood and martyrs and body parts.”
Perth arrival in 2024
Al Hattab said, “But we had to keep walking continuously without stopping.” She reached Perth after traveling through Egypt, while her sister already lived in Australia. The family’s move brought immediate safety, but the visa status that followed did not settle where they can build a life.
That gap runs through the wider group now in Australia. The temporary visas issued to arrivals from Gaza do not guarantee permanent residency under Australia’s humanitarian program, and the source says they offer physical safety without structural stability.
Al Hattab family visas
The family’s application history shows the same limit. Of the 18 visas Al Hattab’s sister applied for, only five were granted by the Australian government. Sixteen members of the Al Hattab family remain trapped in a makeshift tent in Gaza, including her father and younger siblings.
For people already in Australia, that leaves daily life tied to a temporary status rather than a settled one. For those still in Gaza, the family split remains in place while the Australian visas cover only a portion of the relatives who applied.
Temporary visas in Australia
The broader figure is about 1,700 Palestinians in Australia on temporary visas. The source says those visas do not secure a route to permanent residency, leaving the long-term position of Gaza arrivals unresolved inside Australia’s humanitarian program.
For Al Hattab, the question is not whether she made it to safety in Perth. It is whether the temporary status that brought her there will ever turn into something durable enough for a teacher, a family, and 16 relatives still waiting in Gaza.
