An Afghan in detention.
A refugee who worked with the Australians during the war in Afghanistan waits in detention as some of his family are killed by the Taliban and others are at increasing risk.
“I come here to move my family to a safe country. I am not thinking they keep me here for eight years for no reason. If you showed me the reason I say, ‘Okay, I am bad man, okay, I am criminal so you keep me in detention’ ... But they not show any reason, just keep me in here.”
A refugee sits in a room on a secure floor of Melbourne’s Park Hotel, his mind racing. He is not allowed outside. He has not taken one breath of fresh air in three months.
At night, he does not sleep. At 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, he calls his family in Afghanistan to ask his wife if she and their children are okay. They are still in Kabul, where he said goodbye to them eight years ago. His children, three sons and one daughter, are now teenagers.
Since Australian and allied troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan, his worry for his family has increased significantly. He will not publish his name. Not because of what the Australian government can do to him, he says; they have already taken his freedom and his power. He is fearful of the Taliban: they know he worked for coalition forces in Afghanistan. They have already tried to kill him. They have repeatedly threatened his family. Now, they are encroaching on Kabul.
He is alone. He is anxious. His thoughts are on a loop: “Afghanistan is not safe. I need to move my family … I cannot help my family … I need to move my family. For eight years I cannot help my family … If anyone wants to help me, just move my family to safe country. I don’t need anything … I just want to move my family. My family is not safe. The Taliban know me. The Taliban is very angry at me … They look for me, and look for my family. If I do not move my family from Afghanistan the Taliban is killing my family … I need to move my family.”
He says: “Every day, every hour in Afghanistan is changing, changing, changing.”
Following a two-decades-long war, American and NATO forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in May. Australia’s own military exit is now complete. There was no official commemoration. The retreat was abrupt, unceremonious.
Since then, violence in Afghanistan has escalated. The Taliban have captured key border crossings and swaths of new territory. Borders are closed. Embassies are closed. The Taliban now controls or contests more of Afghanistan’s territory than at any time since 2001. Afghan army members have fled to neighbouring countries. This week a United Nations report revealed that more women and children have been killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the past six months than in the first half of any year since records began in 2009.
The unnamed refugee tells The Saturday Paper he began working for the Afghanistan government, and for the allies, at the age of 17. He worked in the National Directorate of Security, for which he obtained and still holds a certificate from the United States and Afghan special forces units. His job, he says, was to advise the allies on Afghanistan: the geography and terrain, roads and villages, safe and dangerous parts of the cities.
He worked alongside international forces to capture and jail Taliban fighters. When the jailed militants were eventually moved into the community, they discovered he was working for the coalition. He moved to another village. The Taliban attacked his house with rocket-propelled grenades. They shot at him several times. He left that village and moved to a city, but the threat and danger did not end: he spent one month in hospital with serious injuries. To date, 15 members of his family have been killed, including his brother who, last year, was shot in the head.
The refugee fled Afghanistan in 2013. He believed he was coming to a safe country, from where he would organise passage for his family. After arriving at Christmas Island, he was sent by the Australian government to Papua New Guinea, where he remained for six years. It was unsafe, he says. He became unwell. In 2019, he was moved to Australia’s mainland for medical treatment. He has been very sick in detention, he says: stomach, head, blood pressure, kidneys, teeth.
For a time he was detained in
Brisbane, where he was placed on a waitlist to see a dentist. Just before his scheduled appointment, he was moved to Melbourne. He does not know why. He is still waiting for proper dental and medical treatment.
His words come at a rush: “I come from Afghanistan to help my family … I come here to move my family to a safe country. I am not thinking they keep me here for eight years for no reason. If you showed me the reason I say, ‘Okay, I am bad man, okay, I am criminal so you keep me in detention’ … But they not show any reason, just keep me in here…
“If Australia government and Australia people do not want refugee, okay, you send me to another country. Why you keep me in here? The government took my power … for eight years I can’t help my family … If eight years ago I go to Canada or New Zealand or any other country, I would move my family to a safe country. To the minister I want to say: ‘For any reason if you want to keep me in here, just say the reason. For eight years you keep me in here … Okay, keep me in here … Please just move my family from Afghanistan to safe country.’ ”
He continues: “I told to the judge, faceto-face, five months ago, you send me back to Papua New Guinea because I want to help my family … This judge has not give decision for five months. I told him if I am criminal – okay, you put me in jail, you send me to the court,
I want an answer in the court. They not show the reason they keep me in detention. For what reason? Because I am refugee. Any time I ask the case manager, they say, ‘I do not know why they keep you in detention.’ Australia government keep me in detention and give the Taliban a chance to kill my family. I want to ask this question about you: If your children are in dangerous country, are you worried or are you happy?”
The Australian government has verified this refugee’s certificate and knows he worked alongside the American and Australian armies in Afghanistan, he says. The government recognises his refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol.
Yet because he arrived by boat, he will not be settled in Australia. He is in detention because no third country will take him.
Two weeks ago he met with representatives from Australian Border Force to again explain his family’s situation. He was told there was nothing they could do: the embassy in Afghanistan had closed. Perhaps they could push his case for community detention to the minister?
From his hotel room he continues to email his case manager but receives no response. He believes the Australian government, and Alex Hawke, the minister for Immigration, is preventing him from taking care of his family.
He repeats his pleas: “Any hour I call my children and my wife, and I say, ‘Okay, I help’ … She is going crazy now … She is so worried now … She says, ‘Why you not help me? It is very dangerous now … If you want to help me, come and help me.’
“Every time I talk to my wife, I talk to my children, and I say, ‘Don’t worry, I will help you … Don’t worry I will find a way to move you from Afghanistan.’ I say it like that to my wife and my children … every day. I know I can’t help because I stay in detention, but what can I say? What can I say to my wife?
‘No, I can’t help’? Every day I talk to my wife and she is very worried. She is worried about my children, she is not worried about herself. She say, ‘The Taliban can kill me, no problem, but not the children. Why they keep you in detention? I need help now. The Taliban is too close to Kabul. The Taliban is come to the gate … the Kabul gate.’
“One hour, one day, I don’t know when is the Taliban going inside Kabul. Many time the Taliban ask my children, ‘Where is your father? I want to find your father, if I can’t find your father I want to kill you.’ My wife is never sleeping … It is eight years she is waiting for me … I want to help her, I want to move her to a safe country. I never help my family … The Australian government took my power … I have no power.”
He concludes: “I need from your people: Help, please.” •
Great power rivalry
Iraq: Joe Biden is ending America’s combat mission in Iraq, 18 years after the United Statesled invasion. On Monday, the US president met with the Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-kadhimi, in the White House to confirm the changing role of US troops, as well as to discuss American support for Iraq’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout and its elections in October.
But most of the 2500 US troops will not be leaving. Instead, they will be given an advisory and training role and will remain in Iraq to prevent a resurgence of Daesh or other radical groups.
Al-kadhimi said Iraqi troops were capable of operating against domestic threats without US support but need assistance with training and intelligence.
Since the invasion in 2003, more than 185,000 civilians and 4700 US and allied troops have died. The US previously scaled back its deployment before conducting troop surges in 2007 and 2014 to try to quash, respectively, insurgent violence and the seizure of territory by Daesh.
In recent months, US troops in Iraq and Syria have been targeted by drone attacks believed to have been conducted by Iranbacked militias. Iraq has largely supported American action against the militias but was critical of US air strikes last month against sites linked to the drone attacks.
Daesh no longer occupies Iraqi territory but retains a presence. Last week, it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in a Baghdad market that killed more than 35 people.
The reduced American role in Iraq comes as Biden shifts his administration’s focus from the Middle East towards Asia, particularly China.
Biden has also begun withdrawing the remaining 2500 US troops from Afghanistan. As US forces have left, the Taliban has escalated its offensive against Afghan forces and now holds about half of the country’s territory.
The US confirmed this week that it has been conducting air strikes against Taliban positions. But it is not clear whether the US will provide military support for Afghan troops after its deployment ends. The US withdrawal is due to be completed on August 31.
The neighbourhood
Samoa: On Tuesday, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa was finally able to take office as Samoa’s first female prime minister after a 109-day standoff that left the Pacific nation without an effective government.
The historic shift of power followed a court decision that confirmed that Mata’afa was the winner of an election in April. For months, the ruling party refused to concede defeat and prevented her party from entering the parliament. In May, Mata’afa was sworn in at a ceremony in a tent outside the parliament – a move the court ruled was constitutional.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who had been prime minister for 23 years, agreed on Monday to step aside and serve in the opposition.
Mata’afa, a 64-year-old matai, or high chiefess, and a prominent national figure, had previously been a member of the ruling Human Rights Protection Party but left last year to join the new FAST Party following concerns over controversial laws dealing with land disputes. The two parties were tied after the election but an independent MP later joined FAST.
Mata’afa said the “illegal” attempt to prevent her taking power had damaged democracy and the rule of law in Samoa, suggesting that a constitutional review may be required.
“This long process has shown where things could go wrong and did go wrong,” she told Radio New Zealand.
Democracy in retreat
Tunisia: Kais Saied, the president of Tunisia, this week removed the prime minister, imposed a one-month curfew and banned public gatherings, but insisted he was not conducting a coup.
Saied, a former professor of constitutional law, claimed his dismissal of the government was necessary to address the country’s worsening unemployment and debt, which have been exacerbated by corruption, a surging Covid-19 outbreak and a mishandled vaccination rollout.
Tunisia remains, for now, the only country to emerge as a democracy from the Arab Spring – a wave of uprisings that began with protests in Tunisia in 2010 and led to the downfall of authoritarian leaders across the Middle East.
But the country, which has about 12 million residents, has remained fragile in the decade since it embraced democracy. Saied’s removal of the prime minister, which appeared to have public support, followed mass protests last weekend at which demonstrators called for the dissolution of parliament.
But the ruling Ennahda party described the move as “a coup against the Tunisian democracy and its constitution”.
Saied, who does not belong to a party, insisted his move was constitutional, saying he will quickly name a new prime minister. He has previously flagged proposals to weaken the power of political parties in favour of locally based parliamentarians.
The Biden administration, which has presented itself as a promoter of global democracy, did not describe the events as a coup but urged Saied to respect human rights. “Tunisia must not squander its democratic gains,” said Ned Price, a State Department spokesperson.
Spotlight: Vatican embezzlement
Rome: A leading Catholic cardinal, Giovanni Angelo Becciu, appeared in court this week to face charges of embezzlement and abuse of office in a corruption case that marks the largest criminal trial in the Vatican’s modern history.
Becciu and nine other defendants, including former Vatican officials, are accused of wrongdoing involving the investment of Vatican funds in a €350 million luxury property development in London.
A former close ally of Pope Francis, Becciu, who is 73 years old, has been accused of funnelling money to entities run by his brothers in Sardinia.
The trial follows a two-year investigation into the investment, which squandered tens of millions of euros, including donations from worshippers.
Following the investigation, Pope Francis sacked Becciu, who had led the Holy See’s saint-making office and was seen as a potential future pope.
The trial marks a test of the Pope’s commitment to cleaning up the Vatican’s finances. It could also expose details about the Vatican’s inner financial workings, as well as shedding light on how much the Pope knew about the London property deal. Last weekend, the Vatican released information about its global real estate holdings, revealing that it owns 4051 properties across Italy and about 1120 abroad.
Earlier this year, the Pope changed Vatican laws to ensure cardinals such as
Becciu were tried by lay judges rather than by fellow cardinals.
The trial is being held in a hall in the Vatican Museums that was converted into a courtroom to allow space for the large numbers attending.
Becciu has claimed he is the victim of a conspiracy. He and the other defendants have denied any wrongdoing. After an eighthour procedural hearing on Tuesday, he told reporters: “The Pope wanted me to go on trial. I am obedient. I am here.”