Asylum-seeker freed after seven years in detention

An asylum-seeker in Australia spent his first day as a free man yesterday after seven years in detention.

Peter Qasim, who claims to be from the Indian part of the disputed Kashmir region, has been held under Australia's mandatory detention policy since arriving there in 1998.

He is Australia's longest-serving detainee, having been left in bureaucratic limbo after India rejected his claims of citizenship, and no other country would accept him.

"Detention is a very bad place because you don't know how long you will stay there," said the 31-year-old on hearing the news that he was finally to be released.

"If you stay a long time, you forget the world outside."Mr Qasim has now been given a special visa that will allow him to live in Australia until he can be deported.

Under the conditions of the visa, he can work and receive benefits, but still has to accept deportation if it is ordered.

For the last month he has been treated for depression in Glenside psychiatric hospital in Adelaide.

Mr Qasim spent his first night of freedom in seven years strolling round the city.

"Now I can be free and I can walk outside and I can enjoy my freedom," he said.

"I don't know what my future is now but I am happy to have a chance to live a normal life."

He plans to indulge in some simple pleasures after his release, saying, "I will go and look for good food, spicy food, and that's all I'm thinking right now."

A couple in Adelaide have offered him a home, and he will talk with his doctors today about when he can leave the hospital.

The opposition Labor Party has called for Mr Qasim to be allowed to stay permanently in Australia.

"After seven years in detention for a man who, by all accounts, has done absolutely nothing wrong other than want to become an Australian, surely they can give some certainty to his life," said the Labour immigration spokesman.

Mr Qasim's plight has been highlighted by critics of the country's mandatory detention policy, which they describe as unjust and inhumane.

Until last month asylum-seeking families were forced apart, with men incarcerated in prison-like detention camps, while their wives and children were housed outside.

The Australian government also agreed to release another 50 asylum-seekers who have been detained for more than two years, while their cases are considered.

- INDEPENDENT