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    October 08, 2011

Activists Urge Australia Not to Deport Afghan Asylum Seekers

   Phil Mercer | Sydney
   Afghan refugees gather at a house in an Adelaide suburb, Australia.
   (file photo)
   Photo: AP
   Afghan refugees gather at a house in a suburb of Adelaide, Australia.
   (file photo)

   Rights activists in Australia are criticizing the government's plan to
   repatriate Afghan refugees who fail to qualify for asylum. They say the
   government is downplaying the security risks in Afghanistan and thus
   are jeopardizing the safety of the asylum seekers being sent home.
   Australian officials say Afghanistan has taken what they call "major
   steps towards democracy and stability." There are about 1,500
   Australian troops in Afghanistan, and while officials in Canberra
   acknowledge that poverty and security issues remain a critical
   challenge, they insist that important progress has been made.
   Some critics say the Canberra government is downplaying the security
   risks in Afghanistan. And they say that assessment has an impact on
   Australia's immigration policies regarding Afghan refugees.
   The issue was a topic of discussion at a conference on Australia's
   Afghanistan policy hosted by the University of Technology in Sydney.
   Organizers there say that as a consequence of the government's
   assessment, Australia has reduced the number of protection visas it
   grants Afghan refugees. They say that in 2007, Australia granted visas
   to 95 percent of Afghans seeking asylum. Now, they say, fewer than half
   of such visa applications are approved.
   Australia signed a deal with Kabul in January that allows Canberra to
   deport refugees who fail to gain asylum. So far, no one has been
   forcibly repatriated, but officials in Canberra will not say if or when
   deportations will begin. Professor James Goodman from the University of
   Technology questions the logic of such a policy.
   'There are about 2,500 of these Afghan refugees, all of them still in
   detention," he said. "This agreement with the Afghan government would
   allow the Australian government to force them to return to Afghanistan
   and our concern was that clearly the security situation in Afghanistan
   is not improving. In fact, it is deteriorating over the last few years,
   deteriorating quite significantly year by year.'
   The meeting of academics, students and human rights activists was held
   to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of
   Afghanistan that toppled the former Taliban government. The conference
   called on the Australian government to reconsider its policy on Afghan
   asylum to take into account what organizers characterized as a
   worsening security situation.
   Among the speakers was Abdul Karim Hekmat, who arrived from Afghanistan
   ten years ago. He says members of his minority Hazara ethnic group are
   facing increased persecution at the hands of the Taliban and
   discrimination by the government. Most of the asylum seekers who apply
   to stay in Australia are from the Hazara group.
   Abdul says any asylum seekers sent home would be at risk. 'For those
   people who will be forced to return to Afghanistan, they will be
   deported in a danger zone and the Afghan government is not able to
   protect them, the returnees and the Hazaras will be targeted once they
   are returned to Afghanistan,' he said.
   Immigration has become one of the most contentious issues in Australian
   politics largely because of a steady flow of unauthorized arrivals
   coming by boat in recent years. The Labor government's proposal to send
   asylum seekers to Malaysia for processing was recently declared
   unlawful by the High Court.
   Australia grants visas to about 13,000 refugees annually under various
   international treaties.