Plans to sponsor Afghan family

Refugee settle camp

By Juliano Oliveira

Warwick-based Southern Down Refugee and Migrant Network (SDRAMN) has brought forward plans to sponsor a humanitarian visa to a married Afghan couple, their one-year-old son and the husband’s brother.

Afghanistan lives under the strict religious rules of the Taliban – a fundamentalist group that took over power again in August 2021 after the withdrawal of the US-led military coalition in the capital Kabul.

SDRAMN ran flat out to complete the required forms to sponsor the family, as its members are Hazara Afghans, a persecuted minority who have been targets of the Taliban in the past.

“They fear for their safety now in Kabul as the father has also worked in the Afghan Human Rights Commission,” the group’s spokesperson Doug Wilson said.

Human Rights Watch alerts that countless Afghans remain at risk of being targeted for their past work or association with coalition forces, Afghanistan’s former government, international development programs, media, civil society, and other organisations promoting human rights.

“The [Australian] government has already agreed to allow 3000 Afghan refugees as part of its current humanitarian intake,” according to Mr Wilson.

He said SDRAMN aligned with the Rural Australians for Refugees, which made an urgent plea for sponsors during the evacuation of Kabul.

“RAR has urged the relevant Federal Ministers to increase the refugee intake to 20,000.”

Mr Wilson said that as a part of RAR’s sponsorship campaign, the Federal Government had granted 11 humanitarian visas, with newly-arrived families completing quarantine in Melbourne, but many more hopeful applicants remain in Kabul.

“Australian governments in the past have shown a willingness to respond to humanitarian crises through a much larger intake of refugees seeking asylum,” he said.

Recently, Southern Downs Regional Council declared Warwick a ‘Refugee Welcome Zone’.