Asylum seeker 'groped boys'

An Afghan asylum seeker living in the community while awaiting deportation is facing child sex charges after he allegedly indecently assaulted two boys at a public swimming pool in Seville Grove.

Armadale detectives allege Ali Khan Ibrahimi groped the boys, aged 11 and 14, in a pool at Armadale Aquatic Centre on a Sunday afternoon in January. The boys reported the incident to a lifeguard and centre staff notified police.

Mr Ibrahimi, a father of three young children, arrived on Christmas Island by boat last year. The Immigration Department had refused him a protection visa, despite his fears of persecution by the Taliban, but he had been allowed to live in the community while waiting to be sent home.

He is now in an immigration detention centre and will face court next month on a charge of indecent dealing with a child under 13 and indecent dealing with a child over 13 and under 16.

The allegations come weeks after shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison claimed asylum-seeker boat arrivals were given a "light touch" security assessment before being released into the community, after a Sri Lankan man on a bridging visa allegedly indecently assaulted a Sydney student last month.

Mr Ibrahimi, who spoke to _The West Australian _about his fight to stay in Australia before the allegations emerged, was among 88 asylum seekers rescued by the navy in February last year when their people-smuggling boat split in two.

Like Mr Ibrahimi, most aboard were Hazara, fleeing the persecution of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The 38-year-old was shot in the stomach and leg and his father and two uncles were killed by the Taliban in 2001 when his family fled their village after refusing orders to join the jihad and fight against their own people.

Mr Ibrahimi spent several years living illegally in Pakistan under what he claims was constant threat to his life, before desperation led him to pay people smugglers.

The Australian Government said in its refusal of Mr Ibrahimi's refugee application in August that it accepted his story but "given the passage of time since the incident occurring and the Taliban . . . not actively targeting Hazara Shi'as (as) they were during their rule in Afghanistan", they could "not be satisfied that he would be targeted upon his return on account of his race and religion".