Afghan asylum boys' father admits lying - report

The father of two Afghan boys who walked into the British consulate in Melbourne and asked for asylum has admitted he has not lived in his homeland for “many years”, it was reported today.

Ali Baktiari was granted political asylum in Australia after telling the government he had fled persecution in Afghanistan.

His sons, Alamdar, 13, and Montazar, 12, appealed to British diplomats after escaping from the notorious Woomera detention camp, where Baktiari’s wife and two daughters are also being held.

Britain refused to grant them asylum, and turned them over to Australian authorities who returned them to the Outback camp.

The Age newspaper today said their father admitted in an interview that he actually came to Australia from Pakistan.

The government said their father’s admission meant he was likely to be stripped of his refugee visa.

Baktiari was quoted as saying he spent two years in the Pakistani city of Quetta before paying people smugglers thousands of pounds to get him to Australia.

He added that it had been “many years” since he left Afghanistan, the Age said.

Had the Australian government known, it would probably have rejected his application, saying he should have sought asylum in the first country he arrived in after fleeing Afghanistan.

“Our view is that we were seriously misled by him,” Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said. “And in a situation like that cancellation of the visa is certainly a likely outcome.”

Refugee activist Cyrus Sarang said today that Baktiari now claims he does not remember telling the newspaper that he came to Australia from Pakistan.

But Prime Minister John Howard said Baktiari’s admission proved the Australian government was right to reject visas for his family.

“I don’t derive any sort of pleasure out of the government being apparently proven correct on this situation,” Howard said today.

“I would just invite people who have been so ready to brand the government as heartless and so ready to criticise the system ... to have a look at this material and just accept that we are not people who are behaving unreasonably,” he said.