But, Narges, Mustafa and their three-year-old daughter Helen have escaped the clutches of the Taliban only to be treated, in their words, like animals in Australia.

In the past week, the traumatised family of three has been moved from a one-bedroom apartment by contracted service provider the Australian Red Cross to a Canberra caravan park where they do not feel safe or welcome.

"Not good life, because change location. Here, I feel I am animal," Narges told The Canberra Times in broken English.

"Because Red Cross and other people very bad, speaking very bad.

"Don't focus on Afghan people."

The family was among the thousands of desperate people who sought freedom from the Taliban takeover in August. They were initially evacuated to the United States, but after three months they shifted to Australia with assistance from Canberra friend Sonia. The Canberra Times has agreed to withhold her last name.

"Mustafa and Narges were both in Afghanistan's national cycling team. They both just want to be able to ride, particularly Narges, in peace," Sonia explained.

"She was beaten over there just for riding a bike like beaten within an inch of her life. She still has headaches from it.

"They want to be able to bring up their daughter in a community that she can go to school and get educated.

"I think the people who live [in the caravan park] unfortunately are not appropriate to be around a young family and a three-year-old particularly after the trauma they've been through."

Apart from competitive riding, Narges modelled clothes and has an electrical engineering diploma, while Mustafa is a talented cameraman. They burnt medals and other sporting memorabilia just before abandoning their home to the advancing Taliban.

"When Taliban come to Kabul very afraid, very afraid, a lot crying, [like] what happened?" Narges said.

"Taliban just think woman in home, sitting home. Woman no modelling. No cycling. No exercise. No job. No friend. Just stay home and cooking and hijab."

They are now refugees processing trauma and trying to begin new lives in Australia.

Scores of other refugee families are in the caravan park which has an onsite tavern but no supermarket or basic shop for food.

They were moved from Kingston on Monday night without notice. There is confusion about why, but the manager of the apartments has told The Canberra Times he would "have them back in a heartbeat". The current small demountable housing the family at the caravan park has cockroaches, a leaking toilet and the bed for their daughter is an inappropriate bunk.

"Last night she fell," Narges said.

"Don't [have] food, so yesterday don't breakfast, don't lunch. Last night four eggs. And rice. No bread."

There's no TV or Wi-Fi. They were just provided a sim card. The family has a small bar fridge, they have no money and they are reliant on Red Cross support staff for food. Sonia has rallied friends to donate toys and bikes.

They say contact with the Red Cross is fraught and sporadic. Narges claims the support worker threatened her with the police after arriving suddenly on Wednesday for an unannounced visa appointment.

"Very angry, she angry. Why fast? I am [in] bathroom," she said.

"No food, material food because if you leave message for case worker, case worker block number. Yes don't answer me. Lots of people, Afghan block.

"Afghan people no stay here. Find a home for themselves."

Sonia says threatening letters have come from Centrelink without translation which the refugees cannot read without support.

She says an under resourced system is letting them down.

"Unfortunately, I think they're overwhelmed by the amount of Afghan refugees that are coming into Australia," she said. "Obviously it was done very unexpectedly, so no one was able to prepare. But at the same time, I think that this is not good enough.

READ MORE:

"This family is lucky because they have me and I'm not afraid to tell it how it is. But there are other families who don't have anybody. And I worry about them."

More Afghan refugees are expected and Sonia is concerned that Australia is under prepared and service providers are overwhelmed.

"This is a crisis across the world. It's not just Australia and it's not just Canberra. It's happening in Sydney. It's happening everywhere," she said.

"We've got more Afghan refugees coming in and the way that they're being kept at the moment is just not acceptable.

"These people need to be treated with dignity and respect and kindness, especially after what they've been through. And I feel like Australia is not prepared to provide them with that."

Home Affairs says under the Humanitarian Settlement Program initial accommodation for refugees is provided for 28 days until long term accommodation is found. It says all Afghan evacuees are being offered immediate settlement support, while contracted service providers, such as the Red Cross, have long standing experience working with new arrivals.

In a statement, the Australian Red Cross said it has delivered settlement services in the ACT since 2017. It is supporting 134 people in the ACT who evacuated from Afghanistan.

"Red Cross is unable to comment on any particular clients without their consent due to privacy considerations," Annie Harvey, lead for Red Cross migration support programs, NSW and ACT said.

"We welcome the public's interest in this issue which highlights the real struggles that exist for refugees being settled into appropriate housing."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: