Confined to the four walls of a small Islamabad alcove, a family of six crowds together, their portable fan providing little respite from the soaring spring temperatures.
“My family lived in an area with good weather and blessings,” a man we’ll call Mr Anwari says, “when we lost everything due to the dominance of the Taliban and we had to leave the country to save our lives.”
His current living conditions are cramped; his security concerns vast. His family’s health is deteriorating and funds are scarce. We are not using their real names to protect their safety. But the Anwaris remain optimistic.
“We try our best to resist the problems and we are not disappointed,” he says.
More than 10,000km away in rural Wal Wal, in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Unmani Unmani’s heart pangs at the thought of the Anwaris’ torment. The 70-year-old Australian musician has never met the family, but has become enmeshed in their lives through the exchange of many hundreds of WhatsApp messages and emails. She envisions the day their suffering will come to an end.
“I can see it in front of me now,” she says. “That family walking into Tullamarine airport with their bags. I’m standing there with my sign. They’ll have their hands on their heart, and I know I’ll be crying.
“That’s my ultimate hope.”
‘We need to open our hearts’
The Anwaris belong to the Hazara ethnic minority group, as well as the Shia religious minority. Anwari has worked for various humanitarian projects, making him a target for the Taliban. He was captured and interrogated by the Taliban in Afghanistan before his family fled to Pakistan, where they remain awaiting the outcome of their visa applications.
They are among the tens of thousands of refugees who lodge claims for asylum in Australia every year. Of the 124,336 offshore humanitarian visa applications lodged in 2021-2022, 109,489 were from Afghanistan. Just 11,545 were approved.
Unmani has been assisting with the family’s visa applications for the past year and a half, after connecting with them through the not-for-profit Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR). She says growing up in a community-minded family shaped her global outlook.
“I have always wanted to have more diversity in my world ,” she says. “When I was first married, I always thought there was something missing. All these faces, talking the same Strine, doing the same rituals. And I’m going, ‘Isn’t there more’?’
“We need to open our hearts and have a spoonful more empathy. I’ve always thrived on the ways other cultures celebrate their life and life events.”
Australia’s humanitarian visa quota increased this year to 17,875 places, in response to rolling international crises. A spokesperson for the department of home affairs said the increase will “ensure we can provide permanent resettlement to those who need it”.
The expanded intake includes 26,500 dedicated places for Afghan nationals, allocated over five years from July 2021 to July 2026.
RAR receives thousands of requests for support from asylum seekers every year, says Marie Sellstrom, the Mansfield branch secretary and Merrijig resident. But they don’t have the resources or funding to keep up.
The 81-year-old says the increase to the humanitarian intake is not enough.
“Those current figures don’t even scrape the surface,” she says.
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The system is also “bureaucratic and hugely inefficient,” she says. They recently had to help an Afghan woman gain refuge in Germany due to Australia’s extended processing time.
“She had gone into hiding, was threatened with stoning, and we helped her and her family to escape to Pakistan,” Sellstrom says. Even though we said her situation was of the highest importance, she was still in Pakistan for 14 months, so we notified Germany and they took her in a week.”
Sellstrom says Australia has a moral responsibility to help the Afghan people, particularly the women.
“It’s the right for people to have a fair life,” she says.
Yaqoob Kazan knows too well the turmoil of fleeing your homeland, having been forced to seek refuge from Afghanistan due to the threat of government forces about eight years ago.
He now lives in Ballarat in central Victoria and volunteers as the intercultural ambassador for the city council. He is also a business owner, chef and father of twins.
“These families’ only hope is from Australia, and to come here and call Australia home,” Kazan says. “They can’t go back to Afghanistan. And Pakistan is not letting anyone be [at] home. You are always a foreigner there.”
At home in Wal Wal, population 27, Unmani is still battling the visa system, waiting for the Anwari’s application to be approved.
“When Ali wrote to me, he said: ‘I don’t have any way and I don’t have any other person. I just have you. If you can help me I am so happy.’”
Unmani’s family farm sprawls across 900 hectares (2,220 acres), her circular rammed earth music studio overlooking the expansive plains that sweep beyond the horizon. She says there are many empty houses in the district, and you’d need to travel for kilometres in any direction to reach the nearest residence.
“Why doesn’t Australia open up more places?” she says. “Who makes that decision? We’ve got a huge country here. Here I am, this middle-class woman on this farm in the Wimmera. And there is all this space.”
*Names have been changed to protect the family’s identity
