Tough new visa changes may force Emad Al-Tamimi to risk life in Iraq Emad Al-Tamimi is considering returning to Iraq even though he believes that would put his life at risk. Photo: Paul Jeffers An asylum seeker who fought with Coalition forces in Iraq wants to risk death and return home after new visa rules quashed hopes of bringing his family to safety in Melbourne. Broadmeadows resident Emad Al-Tamimi, 36, said Australian authorities assured him he would receive a protection visa within six months of his arrival late last year, in light of his work for British and US forces and the threat from militias he faced as a result. He would have been allowed to bring to Australia his wife and daughter, 2, who are still in Iraq. But after Australia toughened its approach to border protection, Mr Al-Tamimi, who is living on a bridging visa, has been told circumstances have changed. Under a policy reintroduced last month, bridging visa holders whose refugee claims are approved will be granted temporary protection visas only, with work rights and access to Medicare. They will not be eligible to sponsor family members for visas, and if they leave Australia they cannot return. Mr Al-Tamimi fears for the safety of his wife and child, as sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni muslims continues to escalate in Baghdad. Last month, a bomb blasted less than 500 metres from the house where they were hiding, he said. He applied to the Immigration Department on October 21 for a voluntary return to Iraq despite running the risk of being killed by militias in revenge for fighting with the Coalition army, and working in security teams for US personnel. "Maybe I die there, but it doesn't matter ... I die there for my family, it's better than to die here without them," he said. From 2006, Mr Al-Tamimi said, militias hunted him, torched his car, sprayed bullets at his house, and threw a grenade through his front fence while he and his wife were sleeping. He has spent 11 months in Australia on a bridging visa that denies him the right to work and limits him to 89 per cent of the dole, $31 a day, until his claim is processed. What am I doing here? I am like an animal - I sleep, I eat, I go to the gym, I come home. I cannot do anything here. Refugee Council of Australia chief executive Paul Power said the number of asylum seekers choosing to return home was increasing. "Family is a critical issue for people," he said. The conditions being applied to their protection here could be seen as worse than the risks they face if they return home.