BY SARAH STEPHEN
With chaos, violence and a humanitarian crisis in Iraq, the Australian government is wasting no time in preparing to send Iraqi refugees home. Immigration minister Philip Ruddock told Channel Nine's Sunday program on April 13 that he had discussed a reintegration package with Prime Minister John Howard which would provide airfares and financial support.
It will be "voluntary", but there will be a deadline, like a similar package offered to Afghan asylum seekers. There is, however, considerable pressure on asylum seekers to accept. This is exacerbated by the "limbo" situation of refugees on temporary protection visas, which give people few rights, and deny them the chance to bring family members to Australia.
As a result of the US-British-Australian invasion of Iraq, the country's health system has totally collapsed and many cities and towns do not have electricity, clean water or functioning sewage systems. Nevertheless, many Iraqi asylum seekers will choose to return rather than live with the anguish and humiliation of being perpetual second-class citizens in a country of wealth.
There are 4186 Iraqi refugees on temporary protection visas in Australia. Sixty-four have reached or are close to their expiry date and have applied for further protection. If the immigration department gets its way, very few — if any — will be granted permanent protection. The best they are likely to get is a renewal of their temporary visas, leaving them in a state of permanent limbo.
Temporary protection visa holder Abdul Almufadal is a Shia Muslim from the north of Iraq. He told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that some Iraqi refugees want to stay, and some want to go back. In December, he was part of organising a protest against the cruel uncertainty of these visas, involving 150 Iraqi refugees outside federal parliament.
During the protest, he was told by a senior immigration department official that nobody would be forced to go back to Iraq unless they wanted to go back. "I can't trust the Australian government or the US government", Almufadal said. They are "always deceiving people... they say something but will do something else. Maybe they'll force us to go back to Iraq."
The fact that some Iraqi refugees may choose to go back is no grounds for putting pressure on all refugees to return. Permanent protection, the chance to rebuild your life after escaping persecution, is a basic human right. Yet "temporary protection" — something that many, including Ruddock, scoffed at in 1996 when One Nation proposed it — is now Coalition policy.
It is even encouraged by the UN High Commission for Refugees, which, at the end of March advocated a three-month freeze on the processing of Iraqi's applications, giving governments a green light to return Iraqi asylum seekers after that time.
In Britain, a dangerous precedent for all asylum seekers may be set. Not only is a "voluntary" repatriation package being offered to Iraqis who recently applied for asylum, but according to the April 13 Observer, the British government wants to pressure the return of all those Iraqis granted refugee status during the last 35 years Saddam Hussein was in power. "Those who refuse will eventually face enforced repatriation", the Observer noted.
The British or Australian government's assessment of what is "safe" is influenced by their intervention into that country. In Afghanistan, for example, Amnesty International, reports that the situation "continues to deteriorate". The organisation has called for an investigation into the deaths of 11 civilians killed in the east of the country in early April. Taliban forces are regrouping, having retained a strong foothold outside of Kabul, and pose an imminent threat to the US puppet government of Hamid Karzai.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that repatriated refugees leave Afghanistan as soon as they can. Yet still they are sent back to their "safe", "new", "post-Taliban" country. The April 13 Observer reported: "Later this month the Home Office will announce that the first 50 Afghan asylum seekers are to be forcibly removed. Officials said that the government would charter its own plane to take the asylum seekers to Kabul." At the end of June, when its offer of assisted returns expires, the Australian government may also consider forced returns. A similar fate may soon await Iraqi refugees.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, April 23, 2003.
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