Up to 700 Gazans could soon be relocating to Australia now that a ceasefire is in place in the region, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says.

The Minister said the refugees had already been granted Australian visas but had not yet been able to leave the Middle East, due to the war sparked after Hamas kidnapped 1200 Israelis on October 7, 2023.

But Mr Burke said that if the peace agreement brokered last week holds, some of those granted visas may change their minds about leaving the war-torn region.

None of them were Palestinians who had been imprisoned by Israeli authorities.

“Sometimes we have people on our caseload that we don’t know if they’re still alive. We’ve got roughly 600 to 700 on our caseload,” Mr Burke told the National Press Club on Thursday.

“Effectively, they would have

See Full Page