Dfat bungle delayed visas for former Afghan embassy employees at risk from Taliban

A file number bungle by an Australian government department caused a four-week delay in helping some Afghan citizens at risk of retribution from the Taliban as the militant group swept to power in Afghanistan, Guardian Australia can reveal.

A freedom-of-information investigation reveals the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade prepared an urgent submission for the then minister Marise Payne asking for a decision about a group of former embassy employees within three days.

But nothing happened with these particular recommendations until after the Taliban had seized the capital city on 15 August 2021.

Many feared that their history of working for Australia would place them at high risk of deadly retaliation from the Taliban.

The precise recommendations and the number of people affected by the delay were blacked out in the FOI documents released to Guardian Australia.

Sources with knowledge of the situation noted that staff were under significant pressure at that time, given the influx of applications and the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

One conversation included checking the names of Afghan citizens that were listed on the new submission and the earlier submission of the same number and confirming that the lists were different.

Glenn Kolomeitz, a director at GAP Veteran & Legal Services, who represented a range of former Afghan locally engaged employees seeking help to leave Afghanistan, was unimpressed by the revelation.

Even if the misplaced brief was signed immediately, it still may have taken time for the affected people to obtain Australian visas, given that the Department of Home Affairs would process applications after Dfat gave the certification.

Events rapidly took over. During the nearly two-week military-led evacuation mission in late August, the Australian government began handing out a large number of emergency visas as the priority had become rapidly getting people with any possible connection to Australia out of the country.

He said some former embassy guards who were contractors gained certification but others did not. Just this week, Kolomeitz said, one of his clients had finally received certification as a locally engaged employee from Dfat.

The 94-page bundle of Dfat documents is the latest to be released as part of an FOI investigation into how multiple government departments handled the Afghan visa scheme in the critical four months to August 2021.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet declined to release any advice or briefings provided to the then prime minister Scott Morrison about the Afghan visa scheme, citing the cabinet documents exemption to FOI laws.