Launceston Hazara community speak of families facing Taliban terror in Afghanistan, hopes for resettlement

And now they must watch from afar as the fundamentalist religious group reclaimed control of Afghanistan, holding grave fears for their families and loved ones.

"My parents, they have some experience under the Taliban. They saw people's hands cut off in front of them and other types of persecution," Yousef Mohammadi said.

Launceston's Hazara community has grown to number more than 50 families, granted humanitarian visas during the war that ravaged the country since 2001.

As president of the city's Hazara Association, Mr Mohammadi said the Taliban's rapid recapture of the country since the US withdrawal has caused immense stress.

He was among those who still have loved ones living in Afghanistan, with the Hazara one of the most persecuted minority groups under the Taliban.

"I have only my grandmother in Afghanistan. She is from a very small town in an area that is now conquered by the Taliban," Mr Mohammadi said.

"In that town, there are hundreds of others there too. They don't have access to internet to inform people what is happening. We are barely able to talk to them.

"They have to go up a hill to receive a mobile network - these are the things that come to mind for us here.

"My mother is worried about her mother all the time, the mother she has not been able to see for 30 years."

They had already heard reports of the Taliban requiring firearms to be surrendered.

Hosein Mohseni, also of Launceston, said it was distressing to see more than 20 years of rebuilding the country - particularly socially - being reversed in a matter of days.

"All of those achievements - freedom of expression, women's rights, freedom of speech - all of that is gone," he said.

"It's a really hard time for us. Every time you call your family, you wonder if it is the last time, will you have the chance to talk to them again?

"My aunts and uncles are still in Afghanistan, and more friends and relatives."

Local families had spent years trying to secure safe passage for their relatives to join them in Australia, but the process often took years, with rejection common without an explanation given.

Mr Mohammadi said they had held concerns for the safety of their loved ones for years - highlighted by the Kabul school bombing in May that targeted members of the Hazara community, killing at least 90.

But he believed one question on the humanitarian visa application indicated that the Australian Government believed Hazara were safe, provided the Taliban was not in power.

"It's a very slow process," Mr Mohammadi said. "There was an application for my uncle to come to Australia. This process at first was very difficult to go through, and then they were rejected.

"They just say it was assessed and they didn't see it as high priority to gain the visa. It took us nearly four years to know that."

Now they face the prospect of not knowing what will happen to their families, having to watch developments from Launceston - a world away.

"We just wish we could show this lovely environment to our families who have never come across this type of situation where they have the support of so many people, and of other religions," Mr Mohammadi said.

"It's one of the biggest wishes we have - to just show them what Australia looks like."

The Hazara are the second community in Launceston to watch from afar as their homeland deteriorated, with the city's Chin community holding vigils earlier this year following the military junta seizing control of Burma.

Migrant Resource Centre Northern Tasmania chief executive officer Ella Dixon said it was a difficult time for local families.

"It's just those emotions of feeling helpless and powerless to impact change from here," she said.

"And there aren't many systems for them to be able to bring their families here.

"There isn't a lot we can do apart from supporting advocacy efforts and appealing to the government with lots of other peak groups.

"We hope the community can show empathy and understand how stressful it might be."

One the greatest challenges was being able to make contact with family members given Afghanistan's poor public infrastructure and the potential displacement of people.

Some Launceston Hazara families had loved ones who had already left Afghanistan and were in temporary camps in neighbouring Pakistan or Iran, but COVID had made travel to Australia difficult or impossible.

Bass Liberal MHR Bridget Archer said the evolving nature of the crisis was making it difficult to provide any kind of certainty.

"Families can be displaced across several countries," she said.

"I've reached out to the Hazara community here proactively, and I'm trying to set up a Zoom meeting in the next couple of days to co-ordinate with the MRC so we have interpreter support.

"My intention is to gather as much information from the community - if they've got friends or family members there - the circumstances, do they have a visa or are they applying, and just get a sense of the varying situations.

"I will put all of those together than as quickly as we can and send those to the relevant ministers."

In the meantime, the Tasmanian Hazara community will hold an event in front of Parliament House in Hobart at midday on Saturday to highlight the plight of their loved ones in Afghanistan.