The information below can help you have an informed conversation about why and how people seek safety. It can also help clear up some common misconceptions and misunderstandings. An asylum seeker is a person looking for protection because they fear persecution, or they have experienced violence or human rights violations.
A refugee is a person who asked for protection and was given refugee status. They may have been resettled in another country or be waiting for resettlement. Not every asylum seeker becomes a refugee, but every refugee starts out as an asylum seeker. A migrant is a person who leaves or flees their home to go to new places — usually abroad — to seek opportunities or safer and better prospects. Migration can be voluntary or involuntary, but most of the time a combination of choices and constraints is involved.
Everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. It is not illegal for people to flee persecution in their homeland or to cross borders without documents or passports in order to seek asylum. It is also not a crime under Australian law to arrive here by boat without a valid visa and ask for protection. Unlike people who arrive in Australia by boat, people who arrive by plane are generally not subject to mandatory detention.
Most people seek asylum in their neighbouring countries if it is safe for them to do so. The top hosting countries are:. Around the world in , 2 million new claims for asylum were lodged with governments or through UNHCR. Australia reported 23, claims were made within Australia, and 70, from outside of Australia over the financial year. For example, in , Bangladesh continued to host , people in a refugee-like situation from Myanmar and in Turkey granted temporary protection to , refugees from Syria.
The gap between needs and actual resettlement is growing, with some States significantly reducing the number of resettlement places on offer. The UN resettlement system does not operate in this way. A queue implies that resettlement is an orderly process and by waiting for a period of time, a person will reach the front of the queue. The UN resettlement system prioritises asylum seekers for resettlement according to considered needs and situations of vulnerability, rather than waiting time.
In , there were 26 million refugees worldwide. Second, there is no reason why the Australian Government has to include these people within the Refugee and Humanitarian Program at all. It did not when the Program began. In recent years, too, refugees who arrived by boat and are given only temporary protection are no longer included in the overall Program.
Are people seeking asylum jumping the queue? It is one of the longest-standing and largest in the world, following usually only the US and Canada. Only around 30 countries in the world resettle refugees, and many of them have only just started or resettle very small numbers. Over the years, Australia has resettled more than , refugees. However, while Australia does well when resettlement figures are compared, it does much less well when one compares countries by the number of refugees both resettled and recognised as refugees that is, those who claim asylum successfully.
This is because claiming asylum is the most common way to be protected as a refugee in the world. In recent years, the size of the Program was set at 13, places, but this has gradually increased since to 18, places in Over the last few years, there have been consistent calls for the Humanitarian Program to be increased, because of the unprecedented numbers of people needing protection.
Most of the Program is concerned with resettling refugees from overseas. They are given Refugee visas visa class Not every refugee will be eligible for resettlement. In recent years, the numbers of refugees on those visas which have been referred by UNHCR has been dropping. This raises questions about how the Australian Government is selecting refugees under the Program. There are also concerns about whether the Australian Government is discriminating against Muslims in its selection process.
Although the Australian Government denies that the program is discriminatory, questions are raised by the low levels of Muslim people resettled from Syria and Iraq. An increasing part of the overseas resettlement program is the use of Special Humanitarian Program visas. These were introduced to address the humanitarian needs of those who may not meet the definition of refugee or have been formally recognised as such, but were in need of humanitarian protection.
These people are given SHP visas visa class However, this part of the Program is now mostly used by refugees already in Ausralia to bring over their family, in the absence of alternatives to family reunion. Restoring the Refugee and Humanitarian Program immediately to 20, and increasing the size of the Program to between 27, and 30, places annually within three years, and increasing each year in light of global needs Platform for Change. Refugee and Humanitarian Program visa grants by stream, to A much smaller part of the Program, but a very welcome one, is the introduction of Women at Risk visas.
This visa category is reserved for women and their children or other dependents living outside their home country, who do not have a male relative who can protect them, and are in danger of victimisation harassment or serious abuse because of their gender.
They are therefore often extremely vulnerable people in refugee camps or in countries where they are seeking refuge.
The numbers of Women at Risk visas has increased in recent years. While this is a welcome development, there are concerns about whether these women are getting the support they need in Australia. There are other visa classes that are used under the Program, but they are used only for a handful of people, if any.
For example, there is a class of visa for emergencies, which is used to resettle refugees quickly whose lives or freedom depend on urgent resettlement subclass and the in-country Special Humanitarian Program Visa subclass , which enables the Australian Government to offer resettlement to people who are not able to leave their country of origin. In recent years, the Government has experimented with a small program, initially known as the Community Proposal Pilot, to allow people in the community to propose resettlement of a refugee.
It is different from the SHP Program in that there is a greater responsibility on those making the proposals and the cost of this program is much higher. When the Program first began, it was run first as a pilot and only in some areas. The Program required those doing the proposing to apply through Approved Proposing Organisations APOs , typically settlement service providers.
It accepted only people a year, and despite its high costs, there was very high demand from refugees desperate to reunite with their families. The Pilot was replaced in by a Community Support Program. This increased the size of the Program to 1, people per year, but as with the Pilot those places were taken from the overall number of the Refugee and Humanitarian Program.
In other words, no new places were created for refugees. Community Support Program. The Program is extremely expensive and prioritises people of working age who are likely to resettle in rural or regional areas.
The Community Support Program: Providing complementary pathways to protection or privatising the Humanitarian Program? We have joined with several organisations to campaign for a better community sponsorship program. Your tax deductible gift can help stop human rights violations and save lives around the world. More Reading. June 18, News Release.
April 16, Dispatches. December 3, Report. November 16, Report. Protecting Rights, Saving Lives Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in 90 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice. Migrants choose to leave their home country, and can choose where to go and when they might return to their home country.
Asylum seekers and refugees, on the other hand, flee their country for their own safety and cannot return unless the situation that forced them to leave improves. Australia has international obligations to protect the human rights of all asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in Australia, regardless of how or where they arrive and whether they arrive with or without a visa. While asylum seekers and refugees are in Australian territory or otherwise engage Australia's jurisdiction , the Australian Government has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that their human rights are respected and protected.
These rights include the right not to be arbitrarily detained. As a party to the Refugee Convention, Australia has agreed to ensure that asylum seekers who meet the definition of a refugee are not sent back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. This is known as the principle of non-refoulement. Australia also has obligations not to return people who face a real risk of violation of certain human rights under the ICCPR, the CAT and the CRC, and not to send people to third countries where they would face a real risk of violation of their human rights under these instruments.
These obligations also apply to people who have not been found to be refugees. Under the Humanitarian Program, Australia accepts a certain number of people every year who are refugees or have special humanitarian needs. The Humanitarian Program has two main components:. The Australian Government has indicated that in the financial year, it intends to provide 13, places in the Humanitarian Program.
In addition, asylum seekers who arrived in Australia without a valid visa but are not transferred to Nauru or Manus Island may be granted temporary protection visas or safe haven enterprise visas. Asylum seekers may arrive in Australia without a valid visa or other documentation for a number of reasons.
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