BY SARAH STEPHEN
In August, Afghan refugees in Australia started receiving letters from the immigration department demanding they leave the country. It seems the Australian government intends to deport all Afghan asylum seekers holding temporary protection visas (TPVs).
The first round of three-year temporary visas were granted in 1999. When these expired earlier this year, the affected refugees had to apply to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) in order to stay in Australia. They were asked to provide evidence that it was still unsafe for them to return to Afghanistan.
TPV holders have already been recognised as refugees. Australia is the only country in the world to require refugees who have already undergone the difficult process of qualifying for protection to re-prove their claim years later.
In August, every one of the approximately 40 Afghan TPV-holders in Sydney who was interviewed by DIMIA received a 21-page letter informing them that their application had been refused.
Twenty TPV holders in Western Australia have also received rejection letters. Reverend Eira Clapton, the general-secretary of the WA Council of Churches, told the August 28 West Australian that more than 800 people in WA would receive similar letters over the next year.
The refugees have been given 28 days to lodge an appeal with the Refugee Review Tribunal. If their appeals are unsuccessful, they must leave the country within 28 days and pay the Australian government $1400. Very few RRT appeals succeed.
DIMIA is claiming that Afghans are no longer "non-citizens in Australia to whom Australia has protection obligations under the UN Refugees Convention". Sixteen pages of the letter are devoted to asserting that Afghanistan is now safe to return to, making selective use of source documents.
In preparing for this decision, the government gave Afghan refugees a document entitled, "Events in the Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan" earlier this year. In a critique of the document circulated in May, Refugee Council of Australia chair, Afghanistan expert Dr William Maley described the document as "misleading" and "highly irresponsible".
Maley pointed out that the document "has almost nothing of value to say about the situation in rural and regional Afghanistan. This omission is quite alarming. For example, Ghazni, an area from which a large number of temporary protection visa holders originate, was described by Todd Pitman in an Associated Press despatch from Kabul dated 20 May 2003 as 'a hotbed of suspected Taliban activity southwest of Kabul'."
Killings by Taliban forces are on the increase. The week ending August 19 saw the deaths of almost 100 Afghans, attributed to the activities of Taliban loyalists. Al-Jazeera TV reported comments by Afghan chief justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari that the Taliban is welcome to re-enter political life, but that it should consider changing its name. Yet DIMIA's rejection letter claims that "the Taliban are no longer a real political or military force within the country".
DIMIA's letter notes that there are two Hazaras, a minority group in Afghanistan, in the new government. However, Hazaras continue to be attacked. Two horrific attacks took place in the Pakistani border town of Quetta, the first port of call for most Afghan refugees, on June 8 and July 4. The attackers deliberately targeted the Shia minority, of which Hazaras make up a significant proportion, killing 64 people and wounding many more.
Afghanistan is not a safe place to live. Warlords continue to battle for control of different areas of the country. Malnutrition is endemic, and there is little access to education, health care and other facilities. More women are being driven back to wearing the burqa. Many families are too frightened to send their girls to school.
All of this has been comprehensively documented. An August 8 Human Rights Watch report titled "Afghanistan: Security must precede repatriation" argues: "Western governments today claim that because the Taliban was defeated, it is safe for many Afghans to return. But the reality is quite different. Many refugees who have returned from Pakistan and Iran are being attacked, robbed and sexually assaulted. Persecution is persecution, whether at the hands of the Taliban or at the hands of local warlords now in control."
If Afghan refugees are deported, those who are Hazara will face ethnic discrimination, those who are non-Muslim will become victims of religious persecution, and those who oppose the United States-backed regime will be politically criminalised.
In a leaflet being distributed in Sydney, Afghan refugees explain: "During our time in Australia, we have suffered from imprisonment, lack of rights and vilification by the government. But we have also worked hard and paid taxes, studied and gained valuable skills, made friends, and contributed to the community in many ways. Being in Australia has given us many opportunities, including to learn that we are entitled, like all other people in the world, to a decent quality of life, free of fear, hunger and persecution.
"The refugees' rights movement in Australia has given much support and hope to those of us forced to seek safe haven here — for which we thank you very much. Unfortunately, we once again need to call on your help. Stopping the government from deporting all Afghan TPV holders is our last chance for a decent life. In particular, those of us who still have a right of appeal to the RRT urgently need help from legal professionals to lodge those appeals. If you are, or know of, a lawyer who would be able to provide some assistance over the next few weeks, please let us know."
Calling for the replacement of temporary visas with permanent protection, WA churches have taken a lead in calling for Afghan refugees to be allowed to stay. A front-page story in the August 28 West Australian reported: "Leaders of the Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting churches, including Archbishop Peter Carnley, and Salvation Army divisional commander Lt Col Graham Durston, have signed an open letter supporting sanctuary for asylum seekers with expired temporary protection visas who faced return to their homelands."
"People will have to weigh up the cost and ask themselves, 'is this serious enough to venture down that path?'", Burger told the West Australian. "We are recognising that offering sanctuary is what some people will feel morally bound to do."
In Auburn in western Sydney, a protest rally is being planned for September 5. In Albany in WA, a community meeting on August 26 decided on a range of actions, including Saturday campaign stalls.
For more information, or to offer assistance, phone Riz Wakil in Sydney on 0405 157 085 or email <pyhazaras@msn.com>; or phone Bradley, Sheila and David Sims in Albany, Western Australia, on (08) 9841 8823 or email <sunnyside@westnet.com.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, September 3, 2003.
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