AFGHAN KILLED

An Afghan man waiting to know if he could get a visa to join family in New Zealand, has been killed trying to flee to Pakistan, a source says.

A member of the man’s family had helped the Defence Force in Afghanistan and has already been resettled here.

So far resettlement of people who helped the Defence Force has been limited to partners and dependent children.

But other family members were also at risk from the Taliban, who are now in control of Afghanistan, Community Law Centres o Aotearoa chief executive Sue Moroney said.

The man who died was one of a group of 70 waiting for a hearing in a Wellington court about how Immigration New Zealand has stalled processing their visas. Community Law Waikato was working with the lawyers taking the action.

Moroney said she learned yesterday of the man’s death.

‘‘I can confirm that the community law client who died is a family member of a person who was resettled in New Zealand because of their support of the NZDF in Afghanistan,’’ she said.

She did not have other details of the dead man.

He was beaten as he tried to cross the border into Pakistan when the Taliban took over in Kabul in late August. Although he made it to Pakistan he died about two days later of his injuries, she said.

The attackers were believed to be Taliban, but that was not confirmed.

Another of the court action group was taken by the Taliban a week ago and has not been heard of since.

A third person from the group has not been contacted since a bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 26. However, there were unconfirmed sightings of him.

The death underlined the urgency of the situation, Moroney said.

It did not give community law centres any pleasure to have tangible evidence of the danger their clients were in. All had family already in New Zealand to sponsor them and find them accommodation.

Moroney said the limits on immigration for wider family members still in Afghanistan failed to take account of how retribution took place in that part of the world.

An Immigration New Zealand spokesman said it had not been made aware of the incident, but understood the difficulties faced by those in Afghanistan and empathised with their situation.

The national manager of refugee and migrant services Andrew Lockhart, said in a statement that Immigration New Zealand was unable to comment on matters while they were before the courts.

The case is due to be heard in Wellington starting November 3.

Other members of the court group were single women who headed families, and were at risk from the Taliban, Moroney said.

All but one of the group had recently also applied for critical purpose visitor visas. Two or three were still waiting for a response and the rest were declined.

The criteria applied to those visa applications was being added to the grounds for the court case. Court action was ‘‘the last port of call’’ and community law groups would much rather the Government reconsider its position, Moroney said.

It was difficult to keep track of their clients. In some instances families in New Zealand have lost contact with family members in Afghanistan. People were in hiding in Kabul, or in mountain areas, or had crossed the border to another country.

They were running out of resources and their circumstances were becoming more dangerous by the day, she said.