Afghan Australian Sara* is sobbing as she speaks via video call from Iran, a bandage on her nose that she explains was caused by flying missile debris raining down on traffic.
About a month ago, Sara and her husband, Fadi*, left their Adelaide home to help their Afghan family members who are in Iran illegally, in hiding and in danger after fleeing the Taliban after the fall of Kabul in 2021.
Now, Israel is contemplating retaliation for Iran’s rocket attacks, amid its escalating war with Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Australian government has told citizens not to travel to Iran. There are risks of missile strikes, terrorist attacks, kidnapping and a “high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest,” according to the Smartraveller website.
But Sara, 54, felt she had to go to help her mum, Rosina*, who is in her 70s, and to check on her other relatives. There are 16 of them – three families with seven children under 16 years old. The youngest is just five and pops her head into the video call with a cheeky smile.
Rosina is one of 230,000 Afghans awaiting a decision from the Australian government on a visa that would ensure her safe passage to our shores, away from the reign of the Taliban in the region.
In August 2021, after western troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the Nazar family desperately tried to get on one of the few evacuation flights.
“We attempted multiple times after the withdrawal to attend the airport, the gate that we were trying so hard to get to is instilled in our hearts,” one of the men, Faraz*, says through a translator.
“It’s called Abbey Gate, the gate we never reached.
“The Taliban would come right near us, and start firing the AK-47. The kids were screaming and yelling. They beat us with the AK-47s, pushed the women around. The kids got trampled.”
Other direct family members – locally engaged employees working for Australia – got out. But those left behind were targeted by the Taliban.
“The Taliban assaulted us. Our house was raided and that was the final straw. We knew we were in danger … it felt like the end of the world on the streets,” Faraz says.
The family fled to Iran, holding on to a promise from Australia that they would be protected by their 449 visas – a temporary evacuation visa that was extended – with visa holders assured they would be prioritised in Australia’s humanitarian and refugee intake.
According to the latest statistics, more than 250,000 Afghans have applied to the department of home affairs for a visa. About 20,000 of applications have been granted.
The government has allocated 26,500 dedicated visa places for Afghans under its offshore humanitarian program through to 2026 and at least 5,000 through the family stream.
The home affairs website says it is processing applications as quickly as they can, but that there are limited places. “We expect it may take several years to finalise all of those received in 2021,” it says.
“We expect it will take at least six years from date of receipt for processing to commence on those lodged in 2022, 2023 or 2024.”
Priority is being given to groups including locally engaged employees (LEEs), 449 visa holders and their family members.
Meanwhile, Rosina hasn’t been able to see a doctor for years, too fearful of the danger outside her front door.
“I had to come,” Sara says.
“They have been inside the house for two years. They can’t go out. The police are deporting people, beating them. They disappear.
“I went to the Australian embassy to get some answers … but they didn’t open the door to us. They said to call or email.”
The family members that made it to Australia have been calling and emailing for years and the advice to the family has remained the same: go to the embassy.
Asked if she’ll try to get out now that an Israeli attack seems imminent, Sara says she can’t. “How can I leave my mum, my family here? They need me. They need me to buy them food.”
The Greens immigration spokesperson, David Shoebridge, says the Australian government has “failed to live up to” its responsibility to Afghans “after the generation-long invasion of Afghanistan”.
“The Iranian regime is brutal. People from Afghanistan in Iran right now are not safe,” he says, adding that the government should have learned from the situation in Pakistan with deportations and focus on getting people out of Iran.
“It was clear that the regime there would persecute people fleeing from Afghanistan,” he says.
“The government did not act, and now people are in a deeply dangerous situation.”
The danger is from both the threat of attack and from the deportations. The Iranian and Pakistani governments are rounding up Afghans and sending them back to the country they fled.
A Dfat spokesperson said the government “remains committed to assisting Afghans who supported Australia’s mission in Afghanistan”.
“The government … is extending all available effort to finalising certifications and visa applications for Afghan LEEs. If a person is certified as an Afghan LEE, the Department of Home Affairs will prioritise the processing of their humanitarian visa application,” the spokesperson said.
The home affairs website says the government policy is to also prioritise the immediate families of LEEs.
“There were promises made, very reluctantly, but they were made,” Shabnam Safa, from the Australian Hazara Advocacy Network, says. “Australia was involved there for 20 years.
“You can’t help but feel that the whole Afghanistan matter has been completely deprioritised.”
“We know people cannot get bread from local bakeries. They can’t get groceries – there are official signs saying we will not sell anything to Afghan refugees here. Let alone having no access to education, or employment, and constantly living in fear of being deported back to the Taliban.”
The Nazar family say they fear deportation and death.
“If you want us to die, we need to know that’s our destiny. Once they find us we will be deported,” Faraz says.
“We’re losing faith that we’re going to be rescued.”
*Names have been changed
