By Danielle Kutchel
Three Federal Labor MPs have joined forces to slam the Federal Government’s reaction to the crisis in Afghanistan.
Bruce MP Julian Hill, Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus and Holt MP Anthony Byrne released a joint statement on Monday 30 August, criticising what they see as a failure of the Federal Government to act soon enough to save Afghans who supported Australia’s mission in the country and speed up visa processing times.
Mr Hill, Mr Dreyfus and Mr Byrne said they had received an “overwhelming number of calls, letters and emails to our offices from families desperate for news of their loved ones and seeking urgent help to get their relatives out of Afghanistan.”
“The Afghan-Australian community has a right to feel angry that the Morrison-Joyce Government ignored persistent pleas for more urgent action for so long and failed to act until it was much too late,” the MPs said in the statement.
“For many months, veterans, former prime ministers and Labor have been calling for urgent action from the Morrison-Joyce Government to fulfil Australia’s moral obligation to the Afghans who have risked everything to support our mission and to speed up the processing of family, partner and other visas.
“This humanitarian crisis was foreseeable, and many people seeking protection here could have been spared the deeply distressing scenes we witnessed at Kabul airport had the government acted sooner.”
But La Trobe MP and Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Jason Wood, called the comments “misleading”.
“The comments made by Labor are misleading and seek to politicise a desperate situation,” he said.
“The Morrison Government is committed to supporting our 70,000 strong Afghan-Australian community.
“My office has been working directly with both the Afghan community and with Minister Hawke’s office to assist with emergency visas.”
He said the recently wrapped-up evacuations from Afghanistan were part of “one of our largest humanitarian airlift operations in our history”, with around 4100 people airlifted out of the country on 32 flights.
“The Morrison Government also granted protection visas to around 1800 Afghan former locally engaged employees before the recent military supported airlift,” Mr Wood added.
“We are unapologetic about maintaining a strong and fair immigration system but Labor’s open door policy with no caps and no security checks are exactly why they should stay in opposition.”
Mr Hill, Mr Dreyfus and Mr Byrne said they were “grateful” for the Australian Defence Force’s work in carrying out the evacuation mission and pledged to stand by the Afghan-Australian community “in the difficult days ahead”.
