Government plans to send Hazara asylum seeker back to Afghanistan may face high court challenge

The federal government faces a potential high court challenge to its plans to forcibly send an Afghan Hazara asylum seeker back to Afghanistan, despite the fall of the country to the Taliban and the systematic persecution of the Hazara ethnic minority.

Late on Friday, the full bench of the federal court allowed an appeal from the government, which is seeking to remove the man from Australia and return him to Afghanistan. The decision is likely to be appealed to the high court, which may or may not choose to hear it.

The decision made by the Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA) in 2017 that the man, while he faced risk of harm in his home country, could safely be sent back to live in the capital, Kabul, was successfully appealed last year.

The man, given the pseudonym EGZ17 before the court, is an ethnic Hazara and a Shia Muslim, and sought protection in Australia claiming he faces harm in Afghanistan.

Judge Alexander Street agreed, and the appeal was successful.

But the minister for immigration, Alex Hawke, appealed to the full bench of the court, arguing the initial decision by the IAA should be upheld, regardless of the changed circumstances in Afghanistan and the illegality of the Taliban coup.

Australia has previously forcibly removed a number of Hazara Afghans prior to the fall of Kabul, including some who faced serious hostilities, with one reportedly kidnapped and tortured by the Taliban before escaping.

The Taliban has a history of violently repressing the Hazara ethnic minority, with that danger exacerbated by the fall of Kabul and their rise to power.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade outlined the dangers the Hazara ethnic minority face in its Thematic Report on the Political and Security Developments in Afghanistan, released in January.

Hussein said Australia had a moral obligation to the people of Afghanistan, after its long-running involvement in the war there and withdrawal last year.