By Sahar Foladi
Greater Dandenong’s ‘Stop Hazara Genocide’ motion has been backed by human rights activists such as Sajjad Askary and Sitarah Mohammadi.
Mr Askary, a former Hazara refugee who holds a Voltaire Human Rights Awards 2022, said they’ve advocated on this issue for long time.
“This motion I believe has given us hope and we understand our local government has listened to us and the fear that the community has.
“It’s given that our local government is more closer and more accessible to the community, so it’s a good start to educate our local government of what’s been happening, what we fear and this will help us expand it on a federal level.”
Ms Mohammadi, who is a World Hazara Council spokesperson also with a Voltaire Human Rights Award, said: “It’s the first time anywhere in the Western world that it has been recognised, at an institutional level, the systematic targeted attacks that the Hazaras have faced in Afghanistan does actually constitute to a crime of genocide.”
The motion followed a recent protest in Dandenong, Harmony Square after the terrorist attack on Kaaj Education Centre in Kabul, which killed and injured many Hazara Afghan girls.
Cr Rhonda Garad, who presented the motion, said she wants the Australian-Hazara community in Dandenong to know that they are being supported.
“Essentially, we want to raise awareness of what’s happening and to show our support and solidarity. We will be asking other councils to also put up notices of motion.”
“We at Greater Dandenong Council lead a taskforce of mayors and councillors who support asylum seekers and refugees.
“We hope to get a groundswell through the taskforce and hopefully build media input, certainly increase public awareness of what’s happening and to get the (Federal) Government to engage with the community.”
The motion also asked to provide permanent protection visas to Afghan Hazara refugees so they can unite with their families in Australia as the targeted killing of Hazaras continue in Afghanistan.
“Many of the community members are on TPV and have insecure visa status so we are broadly pushing very hard to get permanent visa status for the residents so that will help to ensure that they’re not sent back,” Cr Garad said.
La Trobe Liberal MP Jason Wood condemned the attack on Kaaj Education Centre, labelling it as an “outrageous, most awful thing.”
“My office personally supported the applications, during the evacuation, of over 250 families locally. We wrote over 2,000 letters of support.
“We can’t be sending people in Australia now, back to Afghanistan, it’s very obvious we can’t be doing that.”
Mr Wood says he has strong association with the Afghan community and has always called out the atrocities in Afghanistan.
However, the focus should be on the evacuation of people stranded in Afghanistan under the rule of Talibans.
“When you talk about Temporary Protection Visas, I’m more worried about the people trying to evacuate from Afghanistan than people who are safe and well here, provided that they have the opportunity to work.”
