Refugee advocates say constant changes to the rules on the New South Wales-Victorian border pose particular problems for vulnerable migrants.
Bhakti Mainali Dhamala, who works as a multicultural support worker in Albury-Wodonga, says language barriers and trauma made understanding and using the permit system challenging for many refugees.
"Even if they had a basic skill of communication in the other times, this time they are very reluctant to speak up," she said.
"Because they worry they are doing the wrong thing."
Ms Mainali Dhamala works closely with local refugees, particularly the Bhutanese community.
"Bhutanese refugees come from a trauma background in the refugee camps for about 20 years, and so there's a bad impact of police and traffic," she said.
"I'm also from the same background.
"No matter what they are doing, they still have a bit of fear … seeing the police."
'Gap in local information'
One of the main issues has been access to healthcare.
Ms Dhamala said the majority of Bhutanese migrants lived in Albury but attended the only refugee health clinic in the area which is on the Victorian side.
"They need someone to drive, maybe a volunteer from the community because only a few of them are driving," she said.
"So if one person has an appointment mainly they need a permit for two."
Lucie Wallis, who works in multicultural affairs for the Victorian Government, said coronavirus compounded existing issues within vulnerable communities.
"We know that if we lose work we have a number to call Centrelink and they speak our language," she said.
"We have a computer at home and understand how to log on to Service NSW and which button to click to get a permit.
"We know the recruitment process to start applying for jobs and write our resume in English.
"This isn't the experience for many of us."
Government support
But Ms Wallis said the State Government was aware of the problems and was supporting local organisations to try to improve the situation.
As part of this support, Albury Wodonga Ethnic Communities Council (AWECC) received funding to pay community leaders like Ms Dhamala as translators and support workers.
Information gap
Harley Dannatt, from AWECC, said there had been a lack of relevant information, especially in some dialects spoken by refugees in the region.
"There's a gap in local information, particularly with the border closures there's been a lot of things that are very specific to this community," he said.
AWECC is creating video and audio resources so refugees illiterate in their own languages are able to access the information.
But Ms Dhamala said it was tough keeping up.
"Every day, a little bit changes and by the time the information is given to them, it changes into a different system," she said.
