Australia deports another asylum seeker to danger

Australia deports another asylum seeker to danger
Image: Ziad Awad (holding Australian flag cap) with a group from Lakemba Mosque volunteering for flood relief in Queensland.

Last week, the Australian Government deported a Syrian asylum seeker, despite the country being in turmoil, with 1000 civilians killed and 10,000 arrested in government crackdowns since March.

Ziad Awad, the father of a six-year old Australian boy, lived in Australia for 12 years as an asylum seeker on temporary visas. Two weeks ago he went to the Department of Immigration to renew his visa, but instead was detained and taken to Villawood Detention Centre. Until now, Syrian authorities had not agreed to Australia’s requests to supply Awad with travel documents and accept his return.

Awad was forcibly deported last Thursday morning, hours before he was scheduled to appear before the Migration Review Tribunal to appeal his case.

In recent months Awad had taken part in pro-democracy protests aiming to topple Bashar al-Assad, the president who has ruled Syria with an iron fist for 11 years, after inheriting the position from his father’s 29 years in power.

Refugee advocate Keysar Trad told the City Hub that he was extremely worried for Awad’s safety back in Syria.

Trad has heard from a friend that since arriving in Syria, Awad called his wife in Australia to say he had arrived safely. Trad says this is no guarantee of Awad’s safety, as it’s possible he made the call under coercion.

“I know that the fuss we made about him should make them realise that we are going to try and monitor his fate for some time, so I hope that this buys him some protection from torture,” Trad said.

“The government has sent him to torture and death. They are torturing people who have done nothing and this guy has been a thorn in their side for sometime.”

The youngest victim of the regime’s brutal crackdown on protests is 13-year-old Hamza Ali al-Khateeb.  After this child was picked up by security forces at a protest in Syria’s rebel province of Daraa on April 29, his family could not find out his whereabouts for a month. Last week, his brutalised and tortured body was returned to his family, with three gunshot wounds and his genitals cut off.

Spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition Ian Rintoul said it defies belief that the Australian government deported someone who has been actively supporting the democracy movement in Syria.

“The government is going to deliver a democracy movement activist into the hands of a regime that is guilty of killing their own citizens,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

Syrian security forces have used live fire to disperse hundreds of anti-government demonstrators since March.

In April the el-Assad government passed a bill lifting the country’s emergency law, in place for 48 years, just hours after security forces fired on protesters.

Syria’s emergency law gave the government a free hand to arrest people without charge and extended the state’s authority into virtually every aspect of citizens’ lives. But since this announcement, government repression has not ceased.

Rami Adelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “Lifting emergency law is long overdue, but there are a host of other laws that should be scrapped, such as those giving security forces immunity from prosecution, and giving powers to military courts to try civilians,” he added.

Australia’s Department of Immigration has a sordid history of deporting asylum seekers to countries where they face certain danger from authorities. The Edmund Rice Centre in Sydney has documented that asylum seekers deported from Australia to Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Palestine have been killed upon their return.

In 2004, the Edmund Rice Centre published a research paper called “Deported to Danger: A Study of Australia’s Treatment of 40 Rejected Asylum Seekers.”

Their investigation found nine people died after being denied asylum and deported by the Howard Government. Others returned under the Rudd and Gillard governments have been assaulted and imprisoned.

In 2008, a Palestinian refugee Akram al Masri, denied asylum in Australia and deported home, was shot dead.

An 18-year-old Pakistani man Ahad Bilal – whose family was involved in anti-narcotics campaigns – was kidnapped soon after Australia deported him in 2002 by men who injected him with heroin, and forced him to drink poison until he died.

In 2002, a rejected asylum seeker Alvaro Moralez was deported to Columbia where he was gunned down by paramilitaries.

Keysar Trad said just the fact of applying for asylum made Awad a criminal in the eyes of the Syrian government.

“When you come from those countries the moment you apply to be a refugee, it’s seen as bringing the country into disrepute, and immediately that person becomes a target,” Trad said.

 

 

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