Wagga residents awaiting their citizenship ceremonies have been dealt another blow with the city forced to postpone ceremonies for two months in a row and potentially longer due to the ongoing NSW Covid outbreak.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wagga City Council is now looking into offering virtual ceremonies off the back of calls for an alternative to the ongoing postponement of ceremonies to avoid the list of those waiting for their big day growing ever longer.
Eevet Hasan fled Iraq with her family in 2012 and has lived in Australia for five years. She applied for her citizenship in 2019 and was recently notified she was successful, however with the Covid postponements she is one of many facing an uncertain wait time.
In other news:
She said obtaining her Australian citizenship would make her feel completely accepted into her new homeland years after being uprooted form her own and forced to move between places.
"My family and I migrated from Iraq eight years so it's about still having that feeling of being a refugee and not having equal access as everybody else," Ms Hasan said. "If you have citizenship you feel like you belong to the land and the country and the community and you're able to vote, get into the armed forces, you can do [anything] so I think being able to do those things means a lot. You do feel like you belong to the country."
Councillor Dan Hayes initially called on council to look into the possibility of offering online ceremonies to avoid further delays for residents like Ms Hasan.
"The key thing is that we're unsure how long lockdown and the Covid restrictions will continue," Cr Hayes said. "Many people have been waiting for a number of years with the final stage being the ceremony, so there are probably a number of people who would prefer to do the final part virtually rather than wait for restrictions to ease."
He said other councils have been able to provide virtual ceremonies and he was confident Wagga Council would be able to follow suit.
Daniel Harris is a caseworker at the Wagga Multicultural Council and he said for many of their clients, the delay of citizenship ceremonies is not just the delay of a symbolic day of acceptance, for some visa-holders, citizenship is needed before they can bring their families overseas from countries in crisis like Afghanistan.
"I think further delay is upsetting for a lot of clients," Mr Harris said. "For some obtaining citizenship will allow them access to important government services that they don't have access to... some need citizenship to improve their chances of reuniting with family."
"It would be fantastic if people could at least have the opportunity to make a choice about doing the conferral online. I would expect that honestly, people would be open and pleased to take up the opportunity to do it as soon as possible."
Mayor Greg Conkey, who presides over the ceremonies in normal times, said that currently council is discussing the potential of conducting virtual ceremonies with those whose dates have been deferred to gauge interest.
"The Department of Home Affairs [last] week provided Council with detailed instructions on how to conduct online ceremonies," Cr Conkey said. "Council is now contacting conferees to identify if they would like to receive their citizenship via this method, or if they would prefer to wait for an in-person ceremony."
He said it is his preference to conduct the ceremonies in person because of the emotional magnitude of the occasion, but he recognised some may not want or be able to wait for the deferred times.
Ms Hasan agreed an in-person ceremony would mean a lot to her because of the significance of the day, but that with no clear timeline an online option is important.
"I would extremely prefer a face to face session rather than a ceremony over Zoom, but because you never know how long this Covid lockdown will continue for, you just want the option of whatever is the easiest, the simplest and quickest way you can get it," she said.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark dailyadvertiser.com.au
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters