Kim Smee; 1/11/09;
The Taliban stormed into Sadeem Arif Hasheemi’s village, in the central highlands of Afghanistan, forcing him and his five brothers to flee to the mountains to avoid capture. It was almost 10 years ago but he remembers it vividly. The Taliban took what they could from his tribal group, the Hazara people, but they were after more. They wanted the young men, whom theywould recruit to fight against their own people, killing them if they resisted. His mother left food on a designated rock, which the men would collect under the safety of darkness. Hasheemi, known asArif, hasn’t seen his mother since he fled the country and it’s unlikely he will ever again. His parents and three of his brothers have been missing since 2005. He suspects they were killed by the Taliban while trying to escape to Pakistan but hopes there is another explanation. Now living in Perth as a permanent resident, he has managed to sponsor two sisters and one brother who should arrive by Christmas.
The Sun Herald, No Internet Text
He is sitting in a lounge room in Perth’s inner suburbs and, having already talked for two hours, his throat is dry and he keeps coughing. He is also constantly but subtly shifting on the couch in physical pain as he is still suffering back problems from a work accident.
I offer him water and more cushions but he says he is fine. Eventually I get him both anyway and see the relief sweep across his face as he drains his glass and carefully positions the cushions against his back.
He is painfully polite and answers all of my questions, however intrusive, saying that he wants Australians to see that he and his people “have nothing to hide”. Arif is chairman of the United Hazara Association (UHA), a group he formed in August to raise awareness of his people’s culture and plight, and to assist Hazara refugees who flee to Australia.
The Hazaras are Shia Muslims in a country of Sunnis, and are closer to south-east Asians in appearance than other ethnicities in the troubled country. They have historically been subjected to massacres and most recently brutal oppression under the Taliban, who object to their race and religion.
Life in Afghanistan improved somewhat when the Taliban was replaced by an internationally supported government several years ago but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says the return of almost 5 million Afghans since 2002, in part due to the closure of Pakistan’s refugee camps, has placed great pressure on the country.
The re-emerging threat of the Taliban has also led to increasing tensions in the region. It is through Arif’s role as chairman of the UHA that he came to befriend the 22 men detained in Perth who survived the explosion of suspected illegal entry vessel (S1EV) 36 in April. Carrying Hazara refugees from Indonesia to Australia, the SIEV36 was spotted by border protection personnel off Ashmore Reef, north of Broome.
Five men died and the remaining 42 suffered severe burns when the boat caught fire. Twenty of the men were transferred to Brisbane and the rest to Perth. There they were treated for burns to up to 80 per cent of their bodies, before they were detained in community housing.
Northern Territory police were unable to determine if anyone was responsible for the blaze and last month the men were granted permanent protection visas, to a mixed political reception. Arif visited the men in Perth Royal Hospital every day to check on their physical and mental well-being, not only because they were his countrymen but because he too had experienced life as a “boat person” and detained refugee.
In 2000, when he was 20, he travelled with his father to a neighbouring village where his father told him that he was not to return to his family home or to work as a shepherd and fanner in the family’s almond business. A friend of his father had made contact with a people smuggler, who would shortly take him to safety. “He told me that I must leave,” Arif says. “The shopkeeper found a smuggler, he sent me across the country to Pakistan, and it took me 10 days, village to village, leaving in the night. My father did not know what country I would be taken to and neither did I. My father paid him but I don’t know how much he paid.”
According to recent arrivals from Afghanistan, it now costs about $10,000 to be smuggled into Australia. “I was in Pakistan for three days and someone called Abdul took my photo, he must have made a fake passport. After two days we went to a different city and from there we flew to somewhere inAsia, I don’t know, I think to Thailand and then to Indonesia. I was in Indonesia in the airport and was introduced to a different man.
“After 1and1/2 days we travelled by car and then we stayed in the car and on to a big ship. Early in the morning we reached Bali. We weren’t allowed to go outside or talk to anyone. We were then put on a big ship with 500 or 1000 passengers. For four nights we travelled from village to village. We then got on to a small boat, 52 of us, a lot of families, children I didn’t know where I was travelling to. I didn’t know what was Australia, what kind of people lived there. But I was told I would be safe.”
A few days into the journey, the passengers were severely sunburnt, food stocks were low and they had run out of water. He drank salt water through desperation and came to terms with what seemed to be his imminent death.
“Most people didn’t like me because I was happy and they would ask, ‘Why are you happy when we are going to die?’ I said that if we are going to die, then we will die. At least we tried. If we can reach, then we can. This is life.”
After 10 days at sea, the boat was spotted by border protection and taken to Darwin. The journey from Afghanistan took about 25 days. After a week in Darwin, Arif was transferred to Port Hedland detention centre for about a month, before he was approved as a legitimate refugee and given a temporary protection visa, a visa abolished by the Rudd Government in October 2008.
He now has a permanent visa, a status afforded much quicker to the Hazara men from SIEV36 because of the change in regulations.
The expediency with which these men have been given permanent visas, coupled with fears that one may have deliberately set their boat on fire, was fuel for a political backlash. The Federal Opposition claimed the decision sent the message Australia was “soft” on people smugglers, while Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett said they should have been detained until after a coronial inquest into the fire, scheduled for January.
Department of Immigration and Citizenship officials said the men had undergone rigorous security and identity checks, and the Northern Territory police said there was insufficient evidence to charge any of the 42 survivors.
Arif said the men had been suffering severe physical and mental pain and were “overjoyed and relieved” to be in the community. “But every single one of the boys are worried about their families and some, they hate themselves because they are burnt all over their bodies. They are still very distressed.”
A volunteer organisation, the Association for Services to Torture and Trauma Survivors, provided psychologists and counsellors for the men, many of whom were suffering from severe depression, anxiety and constant nightmares.
Of the 22 transferred to Perth, four remain, with the others moving to Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. The four who remain in Perth – Kamal Jaffari, 17, Gulam RazaAmini, 16 and two men in their 30s, Sawar Abdula andAbass Zadadhi – are living together in the Perth suburb of Queens Park. Abdula requires further medical treatment, as his entire body was burned except for his face.
The two teenagers, who both have ” significant burns on their bodies, are attending a local high school. Amini, the youngest, is the only of the four who is fluent in English. The polite and quietly spoken teenager said he was not ready for an interview. I suspected he was fearful of saying something that might jeopardise his visa but he may simply need time to adjust to his new life.
As part of his role in the UHA, Arif plans to push all minors to go to school and for adults to go to a college to get a better education, which in turn will help them better integrate into the community and improve their chances of finding work. They need an education as they are part of the future of Australia,” he says.
Arif says he was lucky to meet a married couple shortly after arriving in Perth. The volunteers taught him about Australian life and gave him much-needed guidance. “I call them Mum and Dad, I love them,” he says.
He hopes the work of UHA will help ensure other refugees are given proper guidance upon arrival. He is not against the detention of boat people, although he thinks better access to those in detention centres such as that at Christmas Island and a greater recognition of the particular plight of the Hazara people and their language, Hazaragi, is required. “I am happy for people to be [detained] for four months, maybe six months for the security checks.”
The granting of the Siev 36 survivors’ permanent residency visas, coupled with the stand-off with Sri Lankan refugees, has pushed Australia’s response to illegal entrants back on to centre stage. It is a balancing act between the humane treatment of legitimate victims of wars and cruel regimes, and the need to regulate the influx of people into the country, “jumping the queue” ahead of those in refugee camps waiting for approval.
Asked his thoughts on accusations of queue jumping, Arif says, “If this apartment was on fire, would you not search for the quickest way out?” But why Australia and not the many countries passed through en route? “Because Australia is the safest and most beautiful country in the world.”
He is convinced he would be dead had his father not sent him on a dangerous voyage out of Afghanistan some nine years ago. “People seem to think we are coming here because we want something from them. I want them to see we are human beings,” he says. “I ask, what is the difference between you and me?”
Tags: Afghanistan, Australia, Migrants & Refugees, USA