A former Afghan refugee, and winner of an auction to spend time learning to surf with Tony Abbott, has told SBS both major political parties are 'desperate' to win votes by using asylum seekers as a 'political football'.
Riz Wakil says both Labor and the Coalition are "punishing" refugees in order to win votes.
"Unfortunately in Australia politics... refugees have become a political football," Mr Wakil says.
"Our politicians think that by going tough, by acting like cowboys on these desperate and innocent people, they will achieve something and win back more voters."
He says scare tactics have been used in Australian and American politics since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.
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Mr Wakil believes the demonisation of asylum seekers is unwarranted.
"People who come to Australia are not a threat to border security in any way. They are contributing to society," he says.
Both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott made major policy announcements on the issue of asylum seekers today.
Mr Abbott flagged a return to Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) among the Coalition's policy changes.
Mr Wakil labels the changes "inhumane", and says the nine months he spent in Curtin Detention Centre while his asylum claim was being processed were "taken away" from him.
Mr Wakil is just as vocal in his opposition to the Government's policy announcements, in particular, the continued freeze on the processing of Afghan asylum claims on the grounds the situation in the war-torn country has improved.
"The situation in Afghanistan) hasn't improved for the heavily-guarded soldiers and international troops... (yet) they want us to believe the situation in Afghanistan has changed and is improving for ordinary Afghans like myself."
He says the danger for Hazaras, a persecuted ethnic group in Pashtun-dominated Afghanistan, is tantamount to a "systemic genocide".
Mr Wakil, himself a Hazara, fled Afghanistan at the age of 18 but now calls Australia home.
Since arriving here in 1999, Mr Wakil has become an Australian citizen and runs a printing business in Sydney.
He was a part of a successful bid by grassroots activist organisation Get Up to get surfing lessons from Tony Abbott.
Mr Wakil says he hopes the Opposition Leader will listen to his story and empathise with refugees who have fled war and persecution.
