AFGHAN asylum seekers will be at risk if the Federal Government does not move carefully with its latest changes to processing their claims for asylum, a Catholic social justice agency has warned.
However, Edmund Rice Centre (ERC) director Phil Glendenning was hopeful Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s recent visit to Afghanistan would help give balance to the Government’s policies in this regard.
Mr Glendenning also said Australia took less than 0.4 per cent of the world’s asylum seekers and that the problem here has been “grossly exaggerated for political purposes”.
He said under international and Australian law, it was legal and a fundamental human right for people facing dangerous situations in their home countries to seek asylum.
“So I welcome Immigration Minister Chris Bowen’s lifting of the freeze on processing Afghan asylum-seeker claims”, Mr Glendenning said.
“However, I’m seriously concerned about the minister’s claims that he now expects lower numbers of successful claims given ‘more up-to-date country information’.
“That’s of great concern given 2010 has been the most violent year in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 – and most of the victims have been civilians especially women and children.
“When soldiers begin dying in increasing numbers, as they now are in Afghanistan, a general rule of thumb is that up to 10 times as many civilians will be dying.
“We’re urging the Government to hasten very slowly and cautiously – it’s not worth even one death because of wrong policy.
“At least the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Afghanistan should give her an even clearer idea of the real situation on the ground.”
Past field trips have convinced Mr Glendenning of the dangers faced by “failed” refugees returned to war zones such as Afghanistan.
“On research trips to Kabul, I met with numerous young men who had been returned to Afghanistan after their claims for protection were rejected by the Australian Government.
“On one visit I accompanied one of these ‘failed’ asylum seekers in Kabul to the graves of his two young daughters.
“He told me that the grenade that killed his daughters after his return was meant for him.”
Mr Glendenning said another man, Mohammed Hossain, he first heard from in Australia and eventually met face-to-face in Kabul in 2008 was killed in 2009 after being kidnapped and dropped into a hole with a grenade.
“Mohammed had fled to Australia from Afghanistan claiming asylum because his life was in danger there,” he said.
“However, under the then Howard Government policy he was refused asylum and sent back to what was claimed to be a safe situation.
“Before he was sent back into danger, he actually rang me a couple of times to say his life would be at risk if he was sent back to Afghanistan and could I help him.”
Mr Glendenning said the ERC had spent the past eight years conducting research in 22 countries into what happens to Australia’s rejected asylum seekers.
“The ERC research showed, for example, that 50 per cent of the Afghan asylum seekers on Nauru were sent back under the Howard Government’s policies,” he said.
“Of those 400 sent back we were able to track, 22 including children were killed once they arrived back in Afghanistan.
“‘Failed’ asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, Iraq and Colombia were also killed when they returned to their home countries.”
Mr Glendenning said these deaths were “an absolute disgrace and such a situation can’t be allowed to happen again”.
In relation to asylum seekers, he said the Federal Government needed to “take a deep breath and acknowledge this was only a small problem in Australia”.
“There’s also this great prejudice against people coming here by boat,” he said.
“The reality is more than 90 per cent of people seeking asylum in Australia come by air.”
Catholics have a duty to educate themselves about the true facts of the matter, he said.
“Armed with this knowledge, they can then write letters to their local MPs and newspapers to help influence Government policies.”
