There is no shortage of evidence – vulnerable women in Afghanistan are in a dire situation as the Taliban continues to advance its stance on gender apartheid.

The Australian government has been strong in its position of compassion for vulnerable women and families in Afghanistan. There is a glaring disparity between this rhetoric and visa processing systems which deny humanitarian visas – despite ample evidence of the desperate situation facing applicants.

More than half of the applications that Rural Australians for Refugees have lodged in the past four years have been rejected on spurious grounds.

Australians voted in support of compassion last month. It is time for the Australian Government to act on this mandate with an overhaul of our visa processing requirements. The post-election silence needs to be replaced with action.

The numbers tell the story.

In 2021 and 2022 alone, RAR members in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania lodged more than 100 applications for Humanitarian visas for families and single men and women based in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Half of these applications have been rejected. Years after lodgment, we are still waiting for acknowledgement of some applications by Home Affairs.

To date, eight families and five single men and women have been successfully settled and are now rebuilding their lives in Australia – studying, working, volunteering, advocating.

It has been easier to organise settlement in France, Spain, Germany, the United States and Brazil. We have settled eight families and a single woman in these countries – all highly skilled professionals including judges, journalists and teachers.

What is going on when Australia’s visa processing system leaves people in dire situations for years on end? When it is impossible to get a Humanitarian Visa acknowledged and approved by the Department of Home Affairs?

When these processes are condemning vulnerable women to violence and oppression, particularly in the context of Afghanistan and gender apartheid.

Rejections, rejections, rejections – all on spurious grounds

We have seen many rejections on questionable grounds.

These applications were all sponsored by rural communities such as Shepparton which have a successful record for settling refugees. They provided evidence that they would accommodate and employ these families.

A professional woman and her father, a successful Shepparton orchardist, lodged applications for 60 families from their home province of Daikundi. They declared that they would accommodate and employ these families.

Home Affairs rejected all applications on the grounds that Australia did not have the capacity to provide for resettlement.

Many of our members have received similar responses. Home Affairs has accepted that refugees have a valid application and have suffered torture. Their response is that Australia does not have the capacity to resettle these people. This frustrates rural communities who do have the capacity to resettle these families and are left feeling shocked at the response of a government they believed to be supportive of rural resettlement.

Rural communities have the capacity to welcome families from Afghanistan. A group in the Western Districts of Victoria has been working for two years to support the head of a Provincial Council in Daikundi and his family. This RAR group and their region has an outstanding record for resettlement.

Yet they are still waiting to hear back from Home Affairs.

There is evidence that this man and his family are living in extreme danger. In 2020, the Taliban attacked the convoy he was leading and tried to kill him. After the fall of Kabul, he was captured and tortured by the Taliban because of his activities assisting NATO forces to defeat the Taliban. He was finally released at the request of the local Elders. He and his five family members had been in hiding since the Taliban took over the province.

His eldest daughter fractured her leg in late 2021 while the family was hiding in Kabul. Prior to the Taliban takeover, she was a women’s rights and social activist in Daikundi. She was secretary of Oxfam councils in Nili and Kitti, and director of women’s sports in Daikundi. Because they were in hiding from the Taliban she could not get her fractured leg set. She now is unable to walk.

A family living and working in Shepparton has been trying to get their mother, two sisters and mentally ill brother to Australia since 2022 with the assistance of a Melbourne-based migration lawyer. They have spent more than $6000 on Legal Fees and have been told by the lawyer they have very little chance of getting the family to Australia. The family is hiding in Quetta in fear of deportation.

They still have not had a response from Home Affairs.

Home Affairs encourages applicants to be registered with UNHCR. For families who are in hiding in Iran and Pakistan, it is virtually impossible to meet the criteria for refugee applicants to register with UNHCR where this service is inaccessible.

We acknowledge there are thousands of applications with 56,625 applications lodged since 15 August 2021. The government has stated they will provide 26,500 places through to 2026, but in our opinion processing of applications needs review as do the number of visas.

Australia is perpetuating gender discrimination, particularly in the context of Afghanistan which has institutionalised gender discrimination.

We have been advised by Home Affairs that women at extreme risk would have their applications supported. This has not been the case. Despite numerous applications from our members across Australia, the majority of applications have been rejected or ignored.

Whether this is a question of incompetence or inefficiency by staff reviewing the application is difficult to say. Many women at risk are being overlooked.

Nabila, the director of Women’s Affairs in Sar-e-pol, went into hiding in late 2021 after being threatened by the Taliban with stoning for her work with women and children at risk. RAR provided many accredited, translated documents verifying her work with women as well as copies of Taliban threats to her life.

RAR arranged to have Nabila, her husband and children secretly transported to Islamabad paid for by our members. After fourteen months with no response from Home Affairs the German Embassy was asked for support and within one week Nabila and her family were settled in Germany.

Hazara woman Humira, formerly an Afghan politician, and her two daughters were pursued by the Taliban. Her first husband was killed by the Taliban, her second husband, in Intelligence, was also being pursued by the Taliban. Her daughters were terrified of being forcibly married to Taliban soldiers if their parents were captured.

Humira and her two daughters managed to escape to Iran.

RAR lodged an application by registered mail to the Home Affairs Special Processing Centre, now two years ago. It was collected the week it was posted, but two years later has never been acknowledged. UNHCR in Canberra acknowledged the seriousness of her case and agreed to speak with government once the application was acknowledged and provided a UNHCR contact in Tehran. The UNHCR in Iran within three months of being contacted organised for Humira, her husband and daughters to be settled in Spain. RAR funded their airfares.

To be continued.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.