Australian Govt queries Afghanistan death claims
August 8, 2006 - 6:59AM
Information that failed asylum seekers had been killed after returning to Afghanistan was repeatedly requested but never provided to the government, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says.
Senator Vanstone said human rights group the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education made the claims on previous occasions and the government requested further information.
"None has been forthcoming," she told ABC radio.
On Monday, the Sydney-based group claimed as many as nine men had been killed after returning to Afghanistan from the Australian detention centre at Nauru.
Researchers from the centre claim they learnt of the men's fate while conducting interviews with former asylum seekers in Kabul.
Edmund Rice Centre director Phil Glendenning said they had been told that nine people had been killed since their return to Afghanistan.
"We confirmed with two of those families ... that the fathers of those families had been killed.
"We (also) learnt that two people sent back from Nauru, their families had been bombed."
Senator Vanstone said the centre had raised such allegations previously.
"On those occasions we have been back twice to meet with them to see if there is any further information they could give us. None was forthcoming," she said.
"Subsequent to those visits further contact was made ... to say is any more information available. None was forthcoming."
Senator Vanstone said the centre was notified in May that the department was closing that file.
"We just didn't have any further information."
Senator Vanstone said it remained an extraordinary situation that some former asylum seekers were claiming to be living in Pakistan because Afghanistan was unsafe but who nevertheless could be interviewed in the Afghan capital Kabul.
"You get my point. If you return voluntarily to Afghanistan, the affidavits I have been given indicate people have been living in Pakistan. I am told the interviews are conducted in Kabul. That indicates a reasonably free movement - freer than others might imagine between Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Labor is urging Senator Vanstone not to be defensive while investigating the claims.
Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke said the claims, if proved, showed how high the stakes could be when processing refugee applications.
"If you get it wrong, then people do return to persecution. If you get it wrong, people do lose their lives," he told reporters.
"There's more detail to come out on this, but the most important thing as Amanda Vanstone conducts her investigations is she mustn't be defensive on this one.
"Amanda Vanstone should not approach this one as trying to make sure that the government covers its record."
Mr Burke said he understood the difficulties in investigating such claims.
"Yes they are difficult, but the stakes of getting it wrong are just unthinkable," he said.
"So I appreciate the minister's in a difficult position, but she mustn't be defensive.
"What we don't want is an outcome that ends with the deaths of people."
© 2006 AAP