The Australian Human Rights Commission has serious concerns about the human rights situation in Afghanistan, heightened by the attacks on Kabul airport overnight, and the corresponding impacts on the Afghan diaspora in Australia.

Commission President Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM said she met with Home Affairs Minister, the Hon Karen Andrews MP, last week and raised these concerns, and has subsequently written setting these out more fully to Minister Andrews and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon Alex Hawke MP.

Professor Croucher said the Commission welcomed the Government’s allocation of 3,000 places to Afghan nationals within Australia’s refugee resettlement program and noted that the Government has said this figure is a floor, not a ceiling.

Professor Croucher said the Commission was deeply concerned for the safety of Australians, Australian visa holders, and any family members of Australia’s Afghan diaspora who remained in Afghanistan.

The Commission has urged the Government to consider expanding Australia’s refugee resettlement program with a specific Afghan intake, as it did in 2015 when it offered an additional 12,000 places to people fleeing Syria and welcomed any initiatives in that direction.

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Date: 27 August 2021

Source: Australian Human Rights Commission