Hazara Nation

GHOLAM Ali spent 18 months in detention on Nauru after being rescued by the Tampa in August 2001, but is so determined to reach Australia he paid people-smugglers thousands of dollars to try again

Mr Ali, 45, was deported to Afghanistan after his time on Nauru as part of the Howard government's Pacific solution for asylum-seekers.

He says he was among the 433 people rescued by the Norwegian freighter from a sinking 20m fishing boat north of Christmas Island.

After the rescue, the Tampa's captain, Arne Rinnan, was refused permission by Australia to offload the boatpeople, most of them ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan.

The incident led to international condemnation but scored domestic political points for John Howard ahead of that year's election.

But the father of four now pins his hopes on Nauru's abandonment as a refugee processing centre and the Rudd Government's abolition of mandatory detention. Little matter that his second attempt has so far also ended in failure.

"If people in Australia know I was on the Tampa, I hope they will know I am a good person and accept me now," Mr Ali says at an immigration detention centre at Dowa on the Indonesia island of Sulawesi, where he was arrested eight months ago.

"If I wasn't really in danger in Afghanistan, why would I try again after I saw death in the face on the Tampa.

"If the government has changed, I'm very happy; I find some hope now, that maybe this Government will pay some attention to me, it might help me."

Mr Ali is part of a new wave of asylum-seekers that has seen five boats intercepted in Australian waters in the past two months, but despite his optimism the Rudd Government was yesterday maintaining its tough rhetoric.

Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus pledged that Canberra's policy would stay as tough as the Howard government's. "There will be no diminution in the border patrol effort over the Christmas period," he said.

Of the five asylum-seeker boats intercepted in the past two months, four were from Indonesia and one probably arrived directly from Sri Lanka, he said.

In the latest interception, on Tuesday, a vessel believed to be operated by Indonesian-based people-smugglers was intercepted carrying 35 passengers and five crew near Ashmore Reef, off northwest Western Australia. They are being taken to Christmas Island for processing.

The five boats intercepted this year compare with five last year and six in 2006.

Efforts to crack down on people-smuggling had not been aided by corrupt officials at the Indonesian embassy in Kabul processing visas for Afghans, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said.

As revealed in The Australian yesterday, embassy officials in Kabul have been demanding up to $US1500 in cash for Indonesian visas, marking the first leg of a journey asylum-seekers hope will end in Australia.

Senator Evans was unable to confirm whether any action had been taken to stamp out the racket. "I'm aware there's been a visa scam in Kabul," he said

"We remain aware and the Indonesian Government remains aware of it. But it's a matter for them to resolve."

Senator Evans said the Government had "reinvigorated" efforts with Indonesia to eradicate people-smuggling. "It has remained a major threat to us throughout the year. Numbers of arrivals have gone up and down but activities have been maintained, our efforts at interdiction have been maintained," he said.

Mr Ali carries with him a photograph of a friend, Mosa Nazari, who he says was killed by ethnic Pashtun fighters after they were sent home from Nauru to Afghanistan's troubled eastern province of Ghazni. After 18 months in Ghazni, Mr Ali said, he paid a people smuggler $US6000 to get him to Indonesia via Malaysia for the second attempt. All went well, including a boat trip from Kuala Lumpur to Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, but arriving in Indonesia without a visa - or even a passport - was a mistake.

"The smuggler took my passport in Malaysia and said he would organise the visa. He cheated me," he said. He has since been telling his wife, still in Afghanistan with their children, to wait, even though she is nervous. After a month in Jakarta, Mr Ali flew to Kupang in West Timor, where he was arrested and eventually taken to the refugee processing centre in Gowa, outside the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar.

He shares the facility with 68 others - a handful of Afghans, who are all ethnic Hazaras like Mr Ali, as well as stateless Kurds, Iraqis, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and Vietnamese.

Another Afghan at the centre, Mohammad Taleb, said the Rudd Government's immigration policy changes were welcome news. "We already made the decision to go to Australia," he said. "We know it's dangerous but a whole part of my village was killed. What else can we do?"

from the australian