Helen Clark and Afghan born author, Abbas Nazari at WORD Christchurch on the 28 August

On 26 August 2001, the Tampa, a Norwegian freighter, took on board hundreds of asylum seekers from Afghanistan when the boat they had boarded in Indonesia began to sink in the Indian Ocean.

One of the children on that fateful voyage was Abbas Nazari who has now published a book about his childhood in Afghanistan and the circumstances which drove his parents to find a safer place for their family to live thousands of kilometres away. Abbas and his family settled as refugees in New Zealand during my time as Prime Minister. His book, "After The Tampa", is published by Allen & Unwin NZ and is available for purchase now.

Twenty years on, Afghanistan once more faces catastrophe as the Taliban have again taken over the country, and again there are very large numbers of internally displaced people and people seeking refugee status elsewhere. I have been commenting on these devastating developments on my Twitter site @HelenClarkNZ. Here is a link to a newspaper report.

On Saturday 28 August at 11.30 am, Abbas and I will be speaking about his book and Afghanistan at the WORD Christchurch literary festival. Details for registration here. Journalist, Mike McRoberts will chair the session.