{"id":96381,"date":"2023-09-15T04:58:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T18:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=96381"},"modified":"2023-09-15T09:11:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T23:11:44","slug":"visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Visas granted as long walk ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LAST Sunday, Sri Lankan refugee Neil Para completed his one-thousand-and-fourteen-kilometre Walk for Freedom in Sydney, and discovered he\u2019d been granted a permanent visa.<\/p>\n<p>Advocating for rights and permanent visas for Australian refugees, Mr Para walked from Lydiard Street, Ballarat to Marrickville, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese&#8217;s electorate office is, and arrived at the finish line on day 41 of his on-foot journey.<\/p>\n<p>There, he reunited with his wife Sugaa and their daughters, who have also been granted permanent visas following the campaign, before they walked through a congratulatory banner together.<\/p>\n<p>The family were met by many supporters and were able to deliver a petition with 20,000 signatures in support of the cause.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Para thanked the Ballarat community for backing him since he set off on 1 August, in particular, the city&#8217;s branch of Rural Australians for Refugees.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_96284\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96284\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-96284\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2023\/09\/DSC09236-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2023\/09\/DSC09236-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2023\/09\/DSC09236-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2023\/09\/DSC09236-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-96284\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Now permanent Australian residents, Neil and Sugaa Para, and their daughters Nivash, Kartie, and Nive, embraced upon their reunion in New South Wales.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMy walk for freedom has come to an end,&#8221; he said. \u201cI am glad and grateful. Thank you, Australia. Now it really is my home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe promise that we will contribute to Australia. Refugees have a lot to give. One day I hope all will be free.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you everyone for supporting all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Para said he will continue to be an advocate for the 10,000 refugees in the country who live in limbo without permanent visas, and cannot legally work.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday morning, with less than six kilometres to go, he said he was looking forward to having a few days of rest, and then getting back to his volunteer work with the State Emergency Services in Ballarat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAST Sunday, Sri Lankan refugee Neil Para completed his one-thousand-and-fourteen-kilometre Walk for Freedom in Sydney, and discovered he\u2019d been granted a permanent visa. Advocating for rights and permanent visas for Australian refugees, Mr Para walked from Lydiard Street, Ballarat to Marrickville, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese&#8217;s electorate office is, and arrived at the finish line [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":96285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-96381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Visas granted as long walk ends - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Visas granted as long walk ends - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LAST Sunday, Sri Lankan refugee Neil Para completed his one-thousand-and-fourteen-kilometre Walk for Freedom in Sydney, and discovered he\u2019d been granted a permanent visa. Advocating for rights and permanent visas for Australian refugees, Mr Para walked from Lydiard Street, Ballarat to Marrickville, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese&#8217;s electorate office is, and arrived at the finish line [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-14T18:58:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-14T23:11:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2023\/09\/DSC09446-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1734\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edwina Williams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Edwina Williams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Edwina Williams\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1679afe19d0c5817f387b660e66f07e9\"},\"headline\":\"Visas granted as long walk ends\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-14T18:58:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-14T23:11:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":294,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/DSC09446-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/\",\"name\":\"Visas granted as long walk ends - Ballarat Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/DSC09446-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-14T18:58:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-14T23:11:44+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/visas-granted-as-long-walk-ends\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/DSC09446-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/DSC09446-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1734,\"caption\":\"Tired but thankful: On day 41 of his Walk for Freedom from Ballarat to Marrickville, refugee Neil Para crossed the finish line accompanied by his family. 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