A family who fled Afghanistan after their daughter was killed in a missile attack has been reunited in Adelaide a decade later, after a successful court case against the Australian government over a four-year delay in processing their visa applications.
A family who fled Afghanistan after their daughter was killed in a missile attack has finally been reunited in South Australia.A family took the Australian government to court over a four-year delay in processing their visa applicationsSome of those visa applications date back to 2012
"I was working in an association and ,because of that, my life was being threatened by the Taliban and I was at risk, so I couldn't feel safe in Afghanistan, so I had to flee," he said.Fida Rezaee, 17, with his sister, Maliha, two. Their lawyer, Josephine Langbien, said the court case argued that the government had failed its legal responsibility to determine visa applications within a reasonable time.
"It was as if I was waiting my whole life to be reunited with my father because we were apart for many years."His younger sister, 14-year-old Frozan, has been taking English lessons for new arrivals."In Pakistan and in Afghanistan they cannot go to school. They have a lot of problems," he said.Frozan Rezaee, 14, has been taking English lessons.Ms Langbien — who works at the Human Rights Law Centre — said thousands of Afghan families remained separated while waiting for visas.
Ms Langbien said more than 7,000 people from Afghanistan were currently waiting for family visas to be processed, and close to 5,000 of those have been waiting longer than two years for an answer. "Our new government must take the opportunity for concrete action for other people from Afghanistan by committing to, and implementing, a one-off, 20,000 humanitarian intake of the most vulnerable people."
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