Asylum seekers find the hurdle has just got higher
By Marian Wilkinson Sydney Morning Herald, March 13, 2002.
Scores of Afghan asylum seekers being held in detention in Woomera, Port Headland and Curtin have been denied protection visas despite recommendations by the Department of Immigration's own officers to grant them.
Confidential departmental emails made available to the Herald show that as recently as Monday, a blanket decision was made in Canberra to reject favourable visa recommendations for a large number of Afghans.
A federal Immigration officer told the Herald the actions were unprecedented in the department. According to the officer, about 160 Afghans had their files changed in December, removing a finding that they had met the key criterion for a visa - a well-grounded fear of persecution. These Afghans were then selected to be "reinterviewed" by the department.
A spokesman for Mr Ruddock said a new process had been put in place after the overthrow of the Taliban changed the political situation in Afghanistan. As part of a "quality assurance" system, all decisions on Afghan asylum seekers were now being run through a management unit in Canberra to assess the rapidly changing situation in the country.
But he denied that any final decisions in favour of visas had been overturned, saying this would be unlawful.
In effect, according to departmental sources, there is a freeze on most Afghan visa applications. Approval rates have been slashed to one tenth of last year's and asylum seekers, already in detention for months, now face an indefinite period in the camps.
One official said this in part explained the dramatic escalation is tension inside the detention camps, including increased suicide attempts and acts of self-harm. "The detention centres are now a cross between a jail and a lunatic asylum", the officer said, adding he was concerned that immigration case officers could find themselves facing acts of violence.
Mr Ruddock's office said the immigration case officers were obliged to take into account up-to-date information on the situation in Afghanistan to ensure protection visas were not granted to those who were no longer genuine refugees.
An email from the Government Solicitor to senior departmental officials, obtained by the Herald, shows the Government sought swift legal advice in December. This argued that even if "an initial assessment of persecution" had been posted, it "does not prevent that assessment being revisited in the light of changed circumstances" so long as the decision to grant the visa had not been made.
While thousands of refugees have returned to Afghanistan from around the world, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recommended that, given the extremely difficult conditions inside the country, there be no forced repatriation of refugees.
Departmental officers say the initial assessments show most of the Afghan asylum seekers in the camps were genuine refugees when they came to Australia but will now face a long period in detention unless they volunteer to return home.
At the same time, the international aid organisation M�decins Sans Fronti�res is warning against sending Afghan asylum seekers home. According to MSF doctors and nurses on the ground, "the country is extremely unstable and volatile, the possibility is high [that] those repatriated could still face persecution and violence".
Intervening for the first time on the Howard Government's refugee policy, MSF said it was "alarmed" by comments made recently by both Mr Howard and Mr Crean about the situation in Afghanistan.