‘Immigration limbo’ left Bikram Lama homeless before he died in Hyde park. Calls are growing for change

Alliance of 48 councils across Australia issue damning statement calling for more support for people in ‘immigration limbo’, joining growing chorus Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Bikram Lama’s death could have been invisible. Since Monday, when Guardian Australia published an investigation into Lama’s life and death, politicians, frontline homelessness workers, advocates and members of the public have been unified in their calls for change. Lama died sleeping rough in Hyde Park in December last year. His body was found in a clump of bushes near the entrance to St James station tunnel, a busy thoroughfare on the edge of Sydney’s CBD. His death was not detected for up to a week. Lama came to Australia to study, his family say, but had been deemed a non-resident by Australian authorities. Support workers say the designation effectively trapped him in homelessness. An alliance of 48 councils from across Australia called Back Your Neighbour, chaired by Sophie Tan, the mayor of Greater Dandenong in Victoria, issued a damning statement on Friday, saying Lama’s death was evidence of “the human cost of policy-driven exclusion”. “When people are