An Afghan asylum seeker rejected for refugee status in Australia will become the first to be forcibly deported under a controversial new repatriation deal.
Ismail Mirzajan will spend his last days in Australia in maximum security at Sydney's Villawood detention centre before he's is flown to Kabul on Saturday after the Refugee Review Tribunal and Federal Magistrates court rejected his refugee status.
Fairfax reports the tribunal rejected the claim after discovering the 27-year-old had been rejected by Britain in 2004 and had lied about his story.
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Mirzajan fears returning to Kabul will put his life at risk.
“I have no-one there to protect me. I have no friends, no family there. So how can I live . . . in Kabul,” Mirzajan told the ABC.
Refugee advocates are worried that the security situation has become more dangerous since Australia and Afghanistan signed the repatriation agreement.
But Immigration minister Chris Bowen has defended the decision to return Mirzajan.
"It's a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees that they should be removed," Bowen told the ABC.
