Asylum-seeker agreement with Afghanistan

Australia and Afghanistan have reportedly reached an historic agreement that’s to see hundreds of failed Afghan asylum seekers returned to Kabul.

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Figures from the Australian Immigration Department show that more than 4.300 Afghans have arrived since late 2008 and only two have voluntarily returned to their home country.

Parliamentary secretary for climate change Mark Dreyfus has told Sky News such discussions have been underway for some time.

The federal opposition has welcomed the draft, but the opposition's immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the government's current plan doesn't go far enough.

'Temporary protection visas, legitimate third country processing offshore - these are things that are no longer happening under this government, and unless they address those domestic policy changes then this crisis will continue,' Morrison said. 'No one is going home any time soon because it'll all get bogged up in the courts as well.'

The Refugee Council of Australia says any program to remove failed asylum seekers must include clear safety measures.

The Council's Chief Executive Paul Power says there have been instances where failed asylum seekers in Australia have been killed after going back to their home country.

'In past years there have been people who have been returned particularly from the process on Nauru to Afghanistan and have died,' he said, adding that the Edmund Rice Centre in Sydney completed a research project where it traced 20 to 24 people who had been returned by Australia to various countries and subsequently been killed. According to Power those returned to Afghanistan were the single largest group.

Power says that if the refugee status determination process in Australia is thorough enough, it should prevent asylum seekers being returned to danger.

He claims some may need protection under grounds other than those specified by the United Nations Refugee Convention.

'The Refugee Convention protects people who are facing persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion and membership of a particular social group,' Power said. 'Sometimes people face persecution and torture for other reasons.'

The head of the Amnesty International's Asia Pacific branch Sam Zarifi says Australia has to make sure it meets its international obligations.

'International law is pretty clear that every country has the responsibility to not return people to a situation where the risk of harm to them is quite high,' Zarifi said. 'So this has to be done on a case by case basis.'

Zarifi believes it's essential to ensure that there is proper monitoring of conditions, he says it's important to see what happens to some of the people who are returned.


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3 min read

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By Aileen Phillips

Source: SBS



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