Journalists and politicians like to talk about the human face of a conflict. But when it comes to the war in Afghanistan and the Australian Government's arbitrary discrimination of Afghan refugees, we don't have a human face. We have a series of human numbers. The first is 1005628.
No it's not the number of casualties, of limbs lost to improvised explosive devices, or the cryptic military code for an assissination attempt, although those grisly stats will come later. It's the case number for an elderly Afghan woman recently ruled to be a genuine refugee.
Ms 1005628 explained she couldn't return to Afghanistan because her 'entire family's political ideology was opposing the Taliban and the Al Qaeda'. Her late son had worked as a government official for many years and had written about his political opinions. She said she would also be targeted because she was a widowed woman and that 'the Afghan authorities were unable to provide security to its citizens as there was a war going on between the Afghan government forces against Al Qaeda and the Taliban'.
The Refugee Review Tribunal accepted her claims and ruled that Australia owed her protection.
This decision was published on 30 September, the same day the Australian Government announced it would lift a freeze on Afghan asylum claims, which had been in place since April. Newly-minted Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told Parliament that now the freeze has been lifted, 'the percentage of successful refugee claims is likely to be lower than in the past'. This assertion was based on 'more exhaustive country information'.
Yet this country information, which was not specified, runs counter to the most recent, publicly available documents on Afghanistan. Media reports, UN documents and Refugee Review Tribunal hearings all indicate that the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating and that ethnic and religious minority groups are still being persecuted.
In fact, even our Diggers are asking for reinforcements, prompting the Opposition to make a predictable call for more troops. Yet if Afghanistan is increasingly unsafe for highly trained, professional soldiers, it must also be increasingly unsafe for asylum seekers, many of whom fled the Taliban in the first place.
The most recent report from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was released