The Australian government has announced it will review its program to prioritise visas for Afghans who worked for the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan, in a bid to help those now threatened by the Taliban.
The government has appointed Vivienne Thom, a former inspector-general of intelligence and security, to assess the Locally Engaged Employee (LEE) program, which has brought 2,300 Afghan staff and their families to Australia since 2012.
Dr Thom's review, due early next year, will "examine how program decisions were made, including the application and appeals process, record keeping and departmental resourcing", the government said in a media release.
"It will also consider whether the legislative instrument that underpins this program remains fit for purpose."
The review comes after criticism of the LEE program from current and former Australian defence personnel and Afghan staff, who said it was too slow, cumbersome and limited in scope.
"Our current and former ADF personnel have been clear about the painful impact of leaving people behind in Afghanistan," Defence Minister Richard Marles said.
"Dr Thom's review is critical to ensuring our ADF personnel can have confidence that Australia will stand by those help us."
Former ADF staff who made it to Australia have welcomed the review but urged the government to act quickly to save Afghans in immediate danger.
'People are running for their lives'
Last month, the Taliban began hunting former ADF staff and threatening their parents with punishment if they did not surrender their children to Afghanistan's new rulers.
"It [the review] will be finalised at the beginning of 2023 but the situation back in Afghanistan is pretty critical, some people don't have the time," Raz Mohammad, who represents former interpreters in Australia, told the ABC.
Mr Mohammad urged the government to consider expanding the program to include the extended families of former ADF staff, who are now being explicitly threatened by the Taliban, and for the overall number of visa places to be expanded.
"More people are running for their lives and more people want to leave the country and the reason why they have to leave the country is because of their association with us [Australia]," he said.
The government has allocated an extra 16,500 places for Afghans in its Humanitarian Visa Program, but 219,000 Afghans have applied for visas since the Taliban re-established control of Afghanistan last year.
The government has been prioritising those who had made it out of Afghanistan because Australia no longer has any diplomatic presence in the country.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said one of the purposes of the review was to see how Australia could help Afghans within Afghanistan who are at risk.
"We know that those attempting to leave Afghanistan face a very difficult set of circumstances, not least because border crossings out of the country are difficult and dangerous," she said.
"But Australia has a moral obligation to help those who helped us and we are focused on doing everything we can to assist those people whose safety is at risk."
Humanitarian agencies welcomed the review and urged the government to broaden the scope of its program.
"MSF is acutely aware of the risks faced by Afghans who worked with Australian and other foreign missions, militaries and aid organisations, and would stress the importance of including aid workers in any revised LEE definition," Simon Eccleshall from Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia said in a statement.
"MSF views this announcement as a demonstration of the Australian government's commitment to a broader shift in refugee and asylum seeker policy, and calls on the government to fast track the implementation of their election promise to restore permanent protection for all refugees in Australia."
