Organisers of a Perth march in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan say the Australian government must increase its efforts to help people fleeing a looming human rights disaster.
More than 1,000 people gathered in Perth’s CBD on Sunday to call for the Australian government to increase the total number of refugees it accepts to 20,000 and to urge the international community to reject the Taliban as a legitimate government.
“We’re asking the Australian and international community to expedite the visa processing for people whose lives are at risk. We’re talking about human rights here. We want the international community to put pressure on the Taliban to protect human rights for women and minorities,” Jawad Musawer told SBS News.
“This will continue until the Australian government and the world hears our protest.”
The federal government has committed to accepting 3,000 refugees from Afghanistan within Australia’s existing offshore humanitarian intake, but has said that number could increase.
Around 1,000 people attended a rally in Perth calling for the government to increase its intake of refugees from Afghanistan. Source: SBS News/Aaron Fernandes
Canada and the United Kingdom have each committed to resettle 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan.
Labor MP Matt Keogh and Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John attended the march and addressed the rally.
Mr Keogh said Federal Labor supported the government attempts to evacuate Australian citizens and Afghan visa holders, but said the effort had come too late for many trying to get out.
“We’ve been concerned for months about the delay by the government in taking action. All we’ve seen is too little too late to help all those that have supported our mission and their families in getting to safety,” he told the rally.
Afghanistan’s national flag flew in Perth’s shopping district, as women, children and men came forward to voice their condemnation of the Taliban and call on the Australian government to take stronger action.
Matt Keogh, Labor member for Burt, Western Australia, addresses a rally in Perth calling for more government support for fleeing Afghans. Source: SBS News/Aaron Fernandes
“We’re furious. For the past 20 years, we have worked, the women of Afghanistan have worked, to liberate themselves. That’s what we are fighting for today,” organiser Madina Jaffari, who work as a journalist in Australia, said.
The protest brought together Afghan Australians from different ethnic groups, uniting Hazara, Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and others in opposition to the Taliban.
Source: Yiying Li, SBS News
“I’m so proud of the collective Afghan community," Ms Jaffari said. "It’s the first time we’ve worked together in such a way. What’s happening in Afghanistan is everyone’s problem, it's every Afghan's problem. That’s why everyone has gathered to condemn what’s happening”.
, the Afghan capital, on four evacuation flights overnight organised by the Australian government.
Another 80 were evacuated from Kabul on an Australian Defence Force rescue flight on Friday night.
Further Australian flights into Kabul are being planned, but the mission is being hampered by personnel being unable to go beyond Kabul's airport due to the Taliban's increasingly violent grip on the city.
The security situation at Kabul airport is also deteriorating, with the US and Germany having issued
