KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Two years after Australia established a compensation scheme for Afghan victims of alleged war crimes committed by Australian soldiers, no compensation payments have been made, according to documents released under freedom of information laws.
The Australian newspaper The Saturday Paper reported that claims submitted by Afghans who say they were victims of war crimes, as well as applications from their families, are still being assessed. Some applicants, including civilians who sustained severe injuries during military operations, have received rejection letters.
One of those whose claim was rejected is Ghulam Jailani, a resident of Kakrag village in Uruzgan province, who lost his left eye and sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his chest during a military raid in 2006.
Jailani and other local residents say Australian soldiers fired indiscriminately at villagers during the operation.
In August 2025, Jailani and his son, Kamin, who was also caught up in the raid, submitted an online compensation claim through the Australian Defence Force’s website with the assistance of an Afghan friend who speaks English.
The Afghanistan Inquiry Response Task Force (AIRTF) subsequently asked Jailani to provide additional information about his injuries.
“That moment changed my life forever. I was struck by three bullets in my chest. Those bullets are still inside my body to this day, and since then, one of my lungs no longer works. I was also shot in my left eye, which has been blind ever since,” Jailani told the task force.
However, his application was rejected, despite the task force stating that the Australian government did not dispute any part of his account.
In its rejection letter, the AIRTF said the injuries Jailani had suffered were serious and concerning, and that it sympathised with his circumstances. However, it concluded that the incident did not meet the criteria for referral under the compensation scheme because it had not been established by the Australian Defence Force inquiry.
The task force also said the scheme was limited to incidents in which the 2020 inquiry had found credible information concerning alleged unlawful assaults, property damage or killings by Australian Defence Force members during operations in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.
The AIRTF’s director-general suggested that Jailani could instead apply for an “Act of Grace” payment, a separate discretionary payment scheme operated by the Australian government. The official warned that such payments were not guaranteed and that the process could be lengthy.
Jailani’s family said the rejection had caused considerable distress and retraumatised them. They also struggled to understand the Brereton inquiry and the alternative payment process, which offered no certainty that their claim would be accepted.
Jailani’s son, Kamin, told The Saturday Paper, “They are playing with us.”
The compensation scheme was established following an inquiry led by then Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force, Major General Paul Brereton. The 2020 report found credible information concerning allegations of unlawful killings of 39 Afghan nationals by Australian Special Forces across 23 incidents.
The inquiry made 15 recommendations concerning compensation for victims and their families, including that payments should not be delayed until criminal liability had been established.
However, the scheme covers only incidents substantiated by the Brereton report. Many Afghan victims remain uncertain whether their cases were included, partly because of language barriers, low literacy rates and redactions in the published report.
Although the scheme’s website provides information in Dari and Pashto, many people in rural Afghanistan have limited literacy and little experience with online technology or government administrative procedures.
Associate Professor Thomas Gregory of the University of Auckland, author of Weaponizing Civilian Protection: Counterinsurgency and Collateral Damage in Afghanistan, said the inquiry could not be assumed to have documented every alleged violation committed by Australian forces.
“It would be naive to assume that the Afghanistan inquiry managed to capture all the allegations that could be levelled against the Australian Defence Force,” Gregory said.
“As more people come forward with stories about the violence they experienced during the conflict, it is incumbent upon the Australian Defence Force to investigate these allegations and provide compensation when appropriate,” he added.
In November 2024, former New South Wales Supreme Court judge Ruth McColl was appointed as the compensation advocate. Under the scheme, she assesses eligible claims referred by the Chief of the Defence Force through the AIRTF before submitting her assessments for a final decision on compensation.
Official correspondence between the Chief of the Defence Force and the compensation advocate shows that at least six claims had been referred to McColl since August 2025. However, no applicants had received compensation.
Documents from Australia’s Department of Defence show that 105 compensation applications had been submitted through an online form since the scheme’s website was launched in November 2024. Of these, 45 had been deemed ineligible as of June 29, 2026.
Among those still awaiting decisions are the families of three Afghan men killed in incidents allegedly involving Ben Roberts-Smith, one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers.
Ali Jan, an Afghan farmer killed in 2012, was allegedly pushed off a cliff in Darwan, Uruzgan province, by Roberts-Smith before another soldier executed him on Roberts-Smith’s orders.
Ahmadullah, a man with a prosthetic leg, and his father, Mohammed Essa, were allegedly killed during a 2009 military operation at a compound known to Australian forces as Whiskey 108, where they were reportedly under the control of Australian troops.
Roberts-Smith allegedly shot Ahmadullah with a machine gun, while another soldier killed Mohammed Essa on his orders.
Roberts-Smith was arrested on April 7, 2026, and charged with five counts of war-crime murder, including in connection with the deaths of the three Afghan men. He has strongly denied the allegations and has not yet been required to enter a plea.
He previously brought an unsuccessful defamation case over the publication of allegations against him. The court in that case assessed the evidence on the balance of probabilities, rather than the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt.
Last month, Roberts-Smith’s bail conditions were amended to allow him to attend a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The ceremony, held last weekend, commemorated the 25th anniversary of Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan.
Kimberley Motley, an international human rights lawyer representing several Afghan claimants, including Ali Jan’s family, said the compensation process had been slow and arduous. She submitted an initial claim on behalf of the family nearly a year ago.
“The process of dealing with the families’ claims has been unclear, has progressed extremely slowly and has been unsuccessful thus far,” Motley said.
“Although legal processes and funding appear to exist for such victims, we have received vague responses and even fewer answers,” she added.
Motley, who was the first foreign litigator to practise in Afghan courts, said many Afghan civilians allegedly killed in Uruzgan during the conflict were not mentioned in the Brereton report and still deserved justice.
Natalija Nikolic, a lawyer representing the families of Mohammed Essa and Ahmadullah, said the continued delays were prolonging the suffering of families who had already endured significant hardship.
“The uncertainty and lack of transparency only compound the suffering of families seeking redress. It is deeply disappointing that families are still waiting for an outcome,” Nikolic said.
In a joint statement issued last week to mark the 25th anniversary of Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan, Albanese, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh made no mention of Afghans who were injured or killed during the conflict.
Meanwhile, the consequences of the 2006 raid on Jailani’s village remain visible. Residents continue to live with severe injuries and disabilities, while many still suffer from nightmares. A woman who was left paralysed during the raid said her teenage daughter was killed.
When news of the compensation scheme reached the village, residents such as Jailani hoped it would provide a means of obtaining justice and redress for their suffering. However, their hopes have so far gone unanswered.
“My hope is that my suffering, and the suffering of my family, will not be forgotten,” Jailani told the AIRTF.
The Australian Defence Force did not respond to requests for comment.
