Australia offering asylum to 2,500 Hazara families?

The Australian government has offered asylum to 2,500 families of the Hazara community, according to media reports quoting Australian diplomats and UN officials. Reportedly, a representative of the Australian Immigration Department met with UN officials last week to make the asylum offer on humanitarian grounds.

However, the Australian High Commission denied the reports, saying Australia was not introducing a new programme to resettle the Hazara community out of Pakistan. “Australia is not introducing a new programme to resettle Hazara community out of Pakistan, as it was reflected in the media reports,” according to a spokesperson of the Australian High Commission. In contrast, Australia’s priority is to assist those refugees who are the most vulnerable, the spokesperson added.

“Though Australia has sympathies for the communities affected by sectarian violence, its humanitarian programme is not specific to any particular country but only for refugees,” the spokesperson said. Refugees, including Afghan Hazaras, wanting to be resettled in Australia must be recognised by UNHCR as meeting the criteria for refugee status, because Australia only considers refugees referred to it by UNHCR, the spokesperson added.

At least 89 people of the minority community, including nine women and two girls aged seven and nine, were killed when a tonne of explosives packed in a water tanker detonated in the middle of a busy bazaar on February 16. It was the second deadly blast in the city in little over a month.

The banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attacks on the community.