Claims Afghan refugees deported from Australia killed

A human rights group claims that up to nine Afghan asylum seekers have been persecuted and killed after being deported by the Australian government.

The Catholic advocacy group, the Edmund Rice Centre said it conducted interviews in Afghanistan with a group of failed refugees who had been held on the Pacific Island of Nauru in 2002.

Phil Glendenning from the Edmund Rice centre said they were coerced into going back to Afghanistan.

"They were told that it would be safe if you went back to Afghanistan and clearly it was not safe," he said.

The Edmund Rice centre said it had found evidence up to nine of those who returned were persecuted and killed.

It has also named two men who were apparently gunned down by militia because they had sought asylum.

The Australian immigration minister, Amanda Vanstone, said the group had made similar claims before but never in enough detail for her department to investigate.

She said she would consider conducting an investigation if the details of the cases were divulged by the centre.

"Someone can be returned to a country because they're not a refugee and it may be the case that they later lose their life in circumstances that we're not aware of, that may be the case," she said.

- RADIO AUSTRALIA