Last minute legal action in the Federal Circuit Court in Perth has failed to prevent the deportation of a 22 year old Afghan man.
An urgent injunction against that deportation was sought yesterday and Judge Lucev handed down his decision this afternoon (14 July). The denial of the injunction means that this young man, who arrived in Australia in December 2011, will be deported in the early hours of Wednesday, 15 July, to what is now an active war zone.
This Tuesday evening (14 July), Refugee Rights Action Network members, along with other concerned citizens, intend to flyer passengers on flights destined for Kabul. We will be asking these passengers to show support for a young man they don’t know; a frightened young man who knows that Kabul is not a safe place for him due to his ethnicity and religion. We will be asking these passengers to do for him what they would do for a son, a grandson, a brother, a friend. We will be asking them to stand up and refuse to sit down until this young man is removed from the plane.
We will be explaining to passengers that ongoing Taliban attacks in Kabul have increased the risks to ethnic and religious minority groups in Afghanistan. The Australian government when assessing refugee claims by asylum seekers from Afghanistan admit that some regional areas are extremely dangerous for Hazara and Tajik minority Shia Muslims. They state that Kabul is safe and determine that, regardless of where in Afghanistan a person comes from, that person can be resettled in Kabul. This is UNTRUE.
Recent events show this is not the case. On 21st June the Taliban launched an attack on Afghanistan’s parliament, killing five innocent people. On 30th June a suicide car bomb attack on the Kabul airport road killed two civilians and injured 26 others. On 7th July there was another suicide car bomb attack in which civilians were injured and in a separate incident a building was occupied by armed gunmen. RRAN considers that these ongoing attacks by terrorist groups have turned Kabul into an ACTIVE WAR ZONE and calls on the Australian Government to halt forced deportations to Afghanistan.
The threat of imminent deportation looms over other asylum seekers doomed by our flawed processing regime. The new “Fast Track” system will increase the number of vulnerable people for whom Australia refuses to provide protection despite our obligations under International Laws. The use of outdated country information and the refusal of the Government to take new developments into account will lead to more people deported to danger and possible death.
Further information from Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
For information from Perth including the action at Perth International airport contact:
Sally Thompson: Refugee Rights Action Network, 0409 720 804; and
Victoria Martin-Iverson: 0427 256 131
