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By
Sophie Morris
AFGHANISTAN
yesterday opened its first embassy in Australia and
ambassador Mahmoud Saikal rebuked Canberra for detaining
asylum-seekers and warned that returns must not be rushed.
Mr
Saikal, who studied architecture at Sydney University
after fleeing Soviet-occupied Kabul in 1981, said he
hoped to visit Afghan asylum-seekers detained on Nauru
who had written to complain about conditions.
He
said the embassy would support anyone claiming to be
an Afghan and could help Australian authorities assess
the validity of such claims, referring to records in
Kabul if doubt remained about a person's nationality.
"They simply cannot be treated as criminals.
A
refugee is a refugee. There is no legal refugee and
illegal refugee," Mr Saikal said.
"I
was a refugee. I was forced to leave Afghanistan and
I can understand how a population were forced to leave
home. The majority of Afghans have come to Australia
by force, not by choice."
Those
who chose to accept the Government's assistance to return
to Afghanistan would find a population in transition,
beset by shortages of food, drinking water, electricity
and accommodation, but filled with hope.
"Anybody
who wishes to return to Afghanistan voluntarily – and
I emphasise the word voluntarily – is welcome and we
will receive them with open arms," he said. "We don't
have a lot to offer them but whatever little we have
we will offer to them and will share it with them."
The
humble rented embassy in an office block in Canberra's
Deakin would offer Afghan language and culture courses
as well as providing consular representation for the
approximately 20,000 Afghan nationals in Australia.
Mr Saikal acknowledged "the legitimate rights of Aust
ralia to protect its borders", but urged the Government
to continue consultations and work towards a "dignified
solution" for asylum-seekers.
"Detaining
teenagers, it doesn't matter where they are from – whether
Afghan, Americans or Australians – for crimes that are
not known – a nine-year-old girl or boy who came to
Australia with daddy or mummy – just detaining them
is not the way to go. There must be another solution."
Ali
Bakhtiyari, the father of the two boys refused asylum
at the British consulate in Melbourne last week, had
planned to fly to Canberra to seek assistance from the
Afghan and other embassies but has postponed the trip
due to sickness.
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