Wednesday, March 27

Anger At New Zealand Government Over Former Afghan Vice President Resettlement As Hundreds Are Trapped | New Zealand


New Zealand’s decision to resettle a former vice president of Afghanistan and 13 family members has sparked controversy, with some asking why hundreds of Afghans who aided or were associated with New Zealand forces remain stranded abroad and fear for their lives.

Sarwar Danish had already escaped to Turkey before recently arriving in New Zealand, according to things, who first reported the news.

Associate Immigration Minister Phil Twyford said Danish, a member of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority, was resettled in part because of his defense of human rights.

But an Afghan translator who worked with him New Zealand SAS told Stuff that the case highlighted the need for the New Zealand government to do more. “It is very frustrating that someone … with no connection to New Zealand has resettled in this country, when the people who directly supported the New Zealand SAS were left behind.”

Assadullah Nazari, president of New Zealand’s Afghan Hazara Association, said he supported resettlement of the Danes, but noted that there were hundreds of Hazara still in danger in Afghanistan who wanted visas.

“See that they are still there and suffering, that the Taliban are killing them, and that they have brought Danes from safety in Turkey? It just doesn’t seem fair. “

Nazari said the government should do more to resettle others who remain in grave danger in Afghanistan.

Danish declined to comment when approached through an intermediary.

New Zealand has granted 1,400 visas to Afghans as part of its response to the Taliban seizure of Afghanistan in August. 1,200 were for Afghans associated with New Zealand’s presence in Afghanistan, and 200 for Afghans at “extreme risk” from the Taliban. Danish, the second vice president in then-President Ashraf Ghani’s administration, is part of the latter category.

Also Read  The prosecutor does not see a hate crime in the words of the magician who said that he spoke Spanish "to look more evil."

However, of the Afghans who were granted visas, only 800 have actually made it to New Zealand, in part because the New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) evacuation efforts from Kabul were disrupted in late August. after one fatal terrorist attack.

Following the attack, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “The future evacuation will be different than it has been to date, and it will be difficult and may take longer, but we will not give up on bringing those who need to return home, to home. . “

At the time, an interpreter who had been approved for a resettlement visa accused the New Zealand government of “total treason” for stopping evacuation flights and asked, “What will happen to us?”

TO News center analysis late last year it discovered that of the 547 Afghans who were granted visas because they or an immediate family member had worked with the NZDF, only 60 had made it to New Zealand.

Due to the closure of the New Zealand border in 2020 due to Covid-19, INZ refused to process a number of Afghan visa applications, incorrectly, according to a subsequent higher court ruling. The higher court also required INZ to prioritize the processing of resettlement applications for Afghans at risk. However, Raza Khadim, a former Afghan translator for the NZDF and a spokesperson for the Association of Afghan Veterans Interpreters, said the process remained “very slow.”

The New Zealand Foreign Ministry says it will not consider new resettlement requests from Afghans and their families who assisted New Zealand forces.

Now some visa inquiries remain unanswered. According to a New Zealander and Hazara who went to Afghanistan before the country’s collapse to help his daughter-in-law’s family escape, he has not heard from INZ or the Foreign Ministry after repeated requests and investigations.

Also Read  Myanmar's coup: a year under military rule in numbers | myanmar coup

Now they are moving across the country to avoid the Taliban, who are attacking the family. “I do not know what to do. I don’t know how to handle this situation. But I can’t leave them here, ”said the man, whom the Guardian has decided not to name for security reasons.

INZ declined to comment on the man’s case for privacy reasons.

When asked about the Danish case, Sue Moroney, CEO of Community Law, said: “I am very reluctant to play people against each other … they are all in a precarious situation.”

However, he noted: “What surprises us is that INZ would give priority to other visa applications for processing over which the higher court has ordered them to fix. [Danish’s resettlement] It alarms us from that perspective ”.


www.theguardian.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *