The Australian government is investigating claims that up to 20 Afghan asylum seekers denied entry to Australia were killed by the Taleban after being sent home.

Chris Evans, the country's Immigration Minister, has ordered an inquiry into claims that the murdered refugees were among 400 asylum refugees refused entry into Australia by John Howard's government.

The claims, made in a documentary to be aired on Australian television next month, have been made by a social research group, the Edmund Rice Centre, whose director, Phil Glendenning, has spoken to many of the rejected asylum seekers.

Mr Glendenning, who spent six years tracing the refugees, says he has documented the deaths of nine, but he believes the true figure is 20.

The asylum seekers were detained on Nauru Island under the Howard government's controversial Pacific Solution, which ordered all asylum seekers to be held on islands in the Pacific to prevent them from setting foot on Australian soil.

According to many interviewed by Mr Glendenning, they were told by immigration officials it was safe to go home, and that if they refused, they would remain in detention forever.

Another 400 who refused to go voluntarily were eventually found to be genuine refugees and were resettled in Australia or other countries including New Zealand.

Of the other Afghans who returned home, many are now hiding in Pakistan, or are forced to shuttle between Pakistan and Afghanistan to evade the Taleban.

They include a man whose two daughters were killed in a Taleban attack on his family's home near Kabul, after his asylum claim was rejected by Australia in 2002.

Abdul Azmin Rajabi was targeted by the Taleban after rejecting Islam and marrying outside his tribal group. After his father was beaten to death for refusing to say where he was, Mr Rajabi fled to Australia, leaving his wife and children in hiding in Iran. He arrived on Nauru in late 2001, where his claim for asylum was rejected.

He told Mr Glendenning that immigration officials offered him Au$2,000 (£780) to return "voluntarily". They said if he turned their offer down, he would face indefinite detention.

In late 2002 Mr Rajabi returned home. Four months later he was at home with his family in a town outside Kabul when a grenade attack on his house killed his two daughters. According to local medical authorities and newspaper reports, the Taleban were behind the attacks, having specifically targeted his family.

Mr Evans has asked for a full briefing on the matters raised by the Edmund Rice Centre.

He said he was taking the claims very seriously and had asked for information about the processes that occurred on Nauru and the “robustness and integrity” of those processes.

However, he said it would be a big step to re-open any of the cases.

“You would want to be convinced there was something very wrong that occurred,” he said.

Philip Ruddock, who was Immigration Minister at the time the refugees were sent back to Afghanistan, defended the policy.

He said the United Nations Refugee Convention did not prevent asylum seekers from being returned to dangerous places, and added: "The fact that somebody might tragically die may well be as tragic as a road accident in Sydney."

The claims have led to renewed calls for a royal commission into the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia. Although Kevin Rudd cancelled the Pacific Solution after being elected Prime Minister last November, it has continued to cast a pall over the country's immigration policies.

The Pacific Solution was drawn up as a response to the infamous Tampa affair, in which the Australian government refused to grant the Norwegian ship Tampa, which had rescued 439 Afghans from a fishing boat, entry to Australian waters.

The long stand-off caused a diplomatic dispute between Australia and Norway, and led to the Australian government ordering refugees to detention camps on small islands scattered throughout the Pacific.

Another refugee interviewed by Mr Glendenning disappeared soon after he met the documentary makers. Eyewitnesses saw him taken out from his workplace by gunmen who put him into a four-wheel-drive vehicle with blackened windows. Mr Glendenning said he was still missing and there were grave fears for his life.

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