Iraqi refugee executed on return

In a November 27 media release, the WA-based Project SafeCom refugee right group, renewed its call for the abolition of Australia's temporary protection visa (TPV) regime following a report in the same day's Australian newspaper that an Iraqi asylum-seeker sent home by Australian officials was assassinated in Baghdad after being accused of being an Australian spy.

The paper reported that immigration officials refused to allow Mohammed Sharif al Saraf to stay in Australia when his three-year TPV expired in 2004,claiming the ousting of Saddam Hussein's regime by the March 2003 US-led invasion meant it was safe for the Iraqi to go back to his homeland. "But the Australian has learned he was back in Iraq for only a few months when he was killed, in Baghdad, in late 2004."

Saraf's case "shows once again how extremely dangerous the notion of a temporary visa regime is", Project SafeCom spokesperson Jack Smit said.

From GLW issue 693