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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Mojtaba is 29 years old. He’s lived in Australia for nearly a decade, but last year he was placed into immigration detention. Since then, he hasn’t been able to see his wife and young son, and may never again.

From Kevin Rudd, to Julia Gillard, to Tony Abbott to Scott Morrison, Mojtaba’s life has been shaped by the immigration policies that all of them have implemented.

Today, journalist Abdul Hekmat on Mojtaba’s story, and the way our system continues to punish the most vulnerable.

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RUBY:

Abdul, can you tell me about Mojtaba, and how he came to be in Australia?

ABDUL:

Mojtaba fled Afghanistan because he was a Hazara, he was prosecuted in Afghanistan, he arrived in Christmas Island around June 2012.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“So, Mojtaba Neeman, I’m almost 29 years old from Afghanistan, and I am Hazara....”

ABDUL:

He was there for a few months and it was a quick turnaround. He was released in a community on a bridging visa, sometimes in late 2012.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“I’m not sure how many months from Christmas Island… to Darwin then to Sydney with a bridging visa…”

ABDUL:

He was about 20 years old. He hasn't travelled outside Afghanistan before and it was quite new to him. But he said that he was really happy at the beginning that he was in the community.

But soon he realised that he could not actually pursue his interests. He wanted to study. He wanted to work. But neither of them was possible because he did not have work rights and he did not he was not able to study as well.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“You’re not allowed to study, you’re not getting any Medicare or Centrelink. And I told her, what do I do, then? How do I pay my rent? I need help.”

ABDUL:

So he said that he did not have any money. He was sleeping on the street and he was sleeping in the park. And he was basically homeless.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“I didn't know anybody. And everything happened so fast. And I just didn't know. I was sitting in a train with a bag of clothes, what do I do?”

RUBY:

Mm, so what happened next in Motjaba’s life?

ABDUL:

Yeah, he was living by himself and he was alone, he was homeless, and then he met Marsha at the end of 2012 and that changed his life. And really it was really kind of interesting.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“I was going to the city on the train. I had a little ball in my hand, I was playing with the ball. That’s when I met Marsha, it was December 26th.”

ABDUL:

He was travelling by train on Western Line in Sydney. And then he came across a young girl in the train and he initiated a talk and they spoke on the train.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“She put it on her phone in the translator on the phone. And I used it to write in my language. And she could read it in English.”

ABDUL:

So soon they fell in love. Mojtaba told Marsha how he felt about her and that he was a refugee who had arrived by boat

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“And I explained it and then she wrote back that her mum was an immigrant as well and not to worry…”

ABDUL:

She’d declare the same affection, telling him that she was the daughter of a Filipina immigrant. And Mojtaba told me that Marsha saved me.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“She took me, she said okay, I’ll look after you…”

ABDUL:

And he said that he had no home and she gave Mojtaba shelter. She cared for him.

RUBY:

And so after he met Marsha, can you tell me a bit about what was happening with his visa situation during this time?

ABDUL:

When Mojtaba met Marsha, his visa was rejected by the Department of Home Affairs. A few months later, his refugee application was also rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal.

The tribunal accepted that he was a Hazara and he would face harm if he returned to his village in Afghanistan, but said that he could relocate elsewhere in the country, possibly Kabul, where there is no real chance of harm if he goes back to Kabul.

RUBY:

And is that the case? Because there is still a lot of violence in Afghanistan, so would someone like Mojtaba be safe if they go and live in Kabul?

ABDUL:

Well, Afghanistan is a very dangerous place for Hazaras.

Archival Tape -- News reporter #1:

“Thousands of Afghans marched through Kabul in the largest protests seen in the capital in recent times. They were protesting against the murder of seven people from the minority Hazara community…”

ABDUL:

And Kabul has witnessed, you know, few attacks happened the last few months.

Archival Tape -- News reporter #2:

“As students rushed to get out of Kabul University, gun shots could be heard closeby.”

ABDUL:

About two weeks ago, the Taliban attacked a very reputable university in Afghanistan, Kabul University, and killed about 22 students.

Archival Tape -- News reporter #2:

“Witnesses say attackers entered the campus through its north gate and started shooting indiscriminately.”

ABDUL:

So there's a generalised violence that happens in Afghanistan. But Hazaras have been specifically targeted...

Archival Tape -- News Reporter #3:

“Local leaders claim in their first five months of rule the Taliban executed up to 15,000 Hazaras.”

ABDUL:

...not only in the capital, but right across the country. Hazara have been beheaded

Archival Tape -- News Reporter #4:

“The charred remains of yet another bombing…”

ABDUL:

And the worshipping places were attacked.

Archival Tape -- News reporter #5:

“How much longer will the blood of the shiites be spilled? How much longer will the government ignore us?”

ABDUL:

So it doesn't actually correspond to the reality of what is going on the ground and what Hazaras has experienced in recent years and months that they have been attacked by the Taliban, specifically because they are Hazara.

RUBY:

And so knowing all of this then, when his application was refused by the tribunal, what did Mojtaba decide to do?

ABDUL:

After that tribunal decision and Mojtaba’s case, he continued to live in a community with no visa. The couple defied Marsha’s family opposition to her being with a Muslim refugee. And a year later, Marsha gave birth to Adam.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“We got some money and we bought some furniture. And then I was working and I got a car and Marcia was pregnant. Adam came. And then we were so happy. Everything was right.”

ABDUL:

When Adam was born, Mojtaba said that it was the happiest moment of his life.

He said that he lost everything and Marsha and Adam were giving them hope that he could celebrate life in Australia. So he was really, despite the difficulties they were going through, he had no work rights, his visa status was in limbo. But he had this new child and Adam was born.

And he was really happy back then.

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Abdul, in 2013, the Australian government introduced new rules for asylum seekers, a code of conduct. Can you tell me about that code of conduct?

ABDUL:

Yeah, it was in December 2013 when Scott Morrison was immigration minister, he introduced a code of behaviour for asylum seekers who are being released on a bridging visa into the community.

They were bound by a list of expectations while their claim for protection has been assessed in Australia. So the Code of expectation were that asylum seekers have to obey the certain law, refrain from spreading rumours, swearing in public, willing anyone or lying to government officials.

RUBY:

Mm.

ABDUL:

So this code of behaviour is highly punitive. Somebody in Australia cannot go to prison until he is proven guilty beyond doubt. But an asylum seeker who lives in the community, if he is reported to the police by a member public and then automatically if the Department of Home Affairs is informed about it, then their visa could be revoked, and they go to a detention centre.

And there is no recourse. There's no way that an asylum seeker could get out from detention centre and go to court about it, because the immigration minister, he is like a God figure: they can take or give life.

So asylum seekers who live in the community, they call living here, signing this sort of behaviour is like living in an open prison.

RUBY:

And so how did this code of conduct come to affect Mojtaba?

ABDUL:

Mojtaba has been living in the community for the past eight years and he hasn’t had work rights or access to medicare, and he has lived almost half of his life in detention centres.

He has been living with a lot of depression and anxiety and trauma because of his uncertainty about his visa.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“I got to the point I knew I couldn’t do anything about it and my depression and anxiety got so bad. It got really bad. I knew I needed help, but I couldn’t get a psychologist or psychiatrist because I couldn’t afford them…”

ABDUL:

The way to cope was through drinking

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“I start drinking. I start drinking, self medicating myself. And my drinking got me into a problem.”

ABDUL:

Mojtaba breached his code of behaviour for drinking on New Year's Eve at the end of 2018, which led to the cancellation of his driver's licence. It wasn't the drink driving that led him to be taken to Villawood, but it was shouting and swearing in public.

Sometimes he actually could go outside home and then start shouting that he was leaving, and that woke his neighbours, they called the police, and the police came and asked him about his situation, and he was taken to a police station, where they found out that he was an asylum seeker living in the community. And that’s actually when they informed the department of Home Affairs because he has breached his code of behaviour. And then he was taken to Villawood.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“First when I came to them not long ago when I came to Villawood I asked them what I have to do. They said nothing, you just have to sit until the minister, he might give you a visa, he might deport you, we don’t know.”

RUBY:

So Mojtaba is back in immigration detention now. You spoke to him recently, what did he say to you? What is he thinking about his future?

ABDUL:

He was very angry and he was very furious. And he said how his life has been shattered and he has been separated from his wife and child for the past 18 or 19 months, while he has been held in Villawood.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“It is… It is very hard for me because I really really miss my son.”

ABDUL:

And he said that there's no choice left for him. He cannot be released in the community to join his son and wife. His life is in limbo.

Archival Tape -- Mojtaba:

“In Afghanistan, the Taliban, they put a bullet in your head and you're dead. But in here, they don’t put a bullet in your head. They kill you other ways, like this…”

ABDUL:

Mojtaba is still in Villawood. He doesn't know what is going to happen. The Australian border force told him that he could not be sent to Afghanistan due to the pandemic because they cannot send him escort on a plane, so he is still in limbo. And currently, he's pursuing some legal avenues whether he is able to be released in the community.

RUBY:

Abdul, you are a Hazara refugee yourself, and you have also spent years reporting on Australia’s immigration system. So I’m wondering, can you tell me how that impacts the way you relate to Mojtaba and his story?

ABDUL:

I have many things in common with Mojtaba, and that's why I have been in touch with him for the past six years. I was almost the same age, about 20 years old, when I arrived in Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan back in early 2001. I spent about five months in Curtin Detention Centre. I know the weight, the uncertainty and despair one has to go through. I cannot imagine that Mujtaba has spent almost half of his life in immigration detention centre. And I have been given a chance to live in Australia after three years living on a temporary protection visa. I have, you know, I was given a permanent protection visa. I finished university back in 2019, I spent about eight or nine years supporting refugees and asylum seekers, working different organisations.

But thinking about Mojtaba he hasn't been given a chance, not even given the right to work and even access to Medicare. But instead he languishes in immigration detention centre. He doesn't have any future. What is going to happen to him? At the moment, he has been separated from his wife, his child. He is somebody whose life has been ruined by immigration detention, by immigration systems in Australia.

The way that the immigration system is very punitive at the moment and punishes a lot of people in a different way. And Mojtaba is one example. When I speak to him, given what he has gone through, he’s a very resilient man. And he always told me that how he could make his life if he was given a little chance, was able to work. He said that he would study, he could be a successful businessman. When I speak to him, given what he has gone through, and still he is hopeful and he thinks that he could rebuild his life again if he is given a chance.

RUBY:

Abdul, thank you for talking to me about all of this today.

ABDUL:

OK, thanks very much. Thanks very much.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

The South Australian government has announced a strict lockdown for the next 6 days.

As of midnight all schools, pubs, cafes, and restaurants have closed. People won’t be able to go outside their homes and outdoor exercise will be banned

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall called the measures a necessary "circuit breaker" to limit the spread of the virus.

And the NSW Transport Minister, Andrew Constance, has asked the state's anti-corruption watchdog to investigate his own government's purchase of a parcel of land in Sydney at three times the estimated value.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See ya tomorrow.

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