1.2.1 Offshore Humanitarian Programme
Objectives
- Help people in humanitarian need overseas for whom resettlement in another country is the only available option.
- Share the responsibility for refugee resettlement with the international community.
Description
The Australian Government provides resettlement for refugees and others who are in the greatest need of this durable solution through the Humanitarian Programme. This output provides for the delivery of the Offshore Humanitarian Programme in a way that enhances settlement outcomes and supports Australia’s role in sharing responsibility for alleviating humanitarian situations.
Performance
Government policy enables the programme to be flexibly managed, allowing places to be carried over or brought forward for use between consecutive programme years. The government made available 13 000 new Humanitarian Programme places for 2006-07.
The department also re-credits places to the programme if offshore visas, once granted, are not taken up or if the holder of a temporary humanitarian visa departs Australia. At the start of the 2006-07 programme, 11 314 of the 13 000 places were available for use as 1805 places had been brought forward to the 2005-06 programme to meet additional demands in that year, and 119 places were re-credited to the available programme numbers as a result of temporary humanitarian visa holders departing Australia and offshore visas not being taken up by the visa recipients. Following adjustment, 11 314 places were available for use in 2006-07, comprising 6031 refugee places and 5283 Special Humanitarian Programme and initial onshore protection places.1 Figure 8 shows the comparison by percentage.
Visa grants
During 2006-07 13 017 visas were granted as follows:
- 5011 Refugee (subclass 200) visas
- 8 In-country Special Humanitarian (subclass 201) visas
- 3 Emergency Rescue (subclass 203) visas
- 980 Woman at Risk (subclass 204) visas1
- 1 Secondary Movement Relocation (Temporary) (subclass 451) visa
- 5275 Global Special Humanitarian Programme (subclass 202) visas2
- 305 Temporary Protection (subclass 785) visas
- 1396 Permanent Protection (subclass 866) visas
- 38 Temporary (Humanitarian Concern) (subclass 786) visas.
A total of 13 017 visas were granted during 2006-07. Eighty-six per cent (11 186) of the total visas were granted under the offshore component, of which 6003 (46 per cent) were Refugee visas and 5183 (40 per cent) were SHP visas. The other 1831 (14 per cent) were Protection and other visas granted to onshore applicants.
This was the fourth consecutive year where all programme places available for use in the programme year were fully taken up and excess visas were granted using places brought forward from the subsequent programme year.
Of the total 6003 visas granted under the Refugee component, 980 (or 16.3 per cent) were granted to Woman at Risk applicants, exceeding the nominal annual target of 10.5 per cent. The level of Woman at Risk visa grants for 2006-07 was the second highest since this visa subclass was established in 1989. A total of 7991 Woman at Risk visas have been granted since 1989.
The highest number of offshore visas in 2006-07 was granted to applicants from Africa (50.9 per cent), followed by the Middle East and South West Asia regions.
This year marked a continued shift in offshore visa grants away from Africa towards the Middle East and Asia, reflecting greater access to resettlement caseloads in these regions and taking into account resettlement priorities recommended by the UNHCR.
Processing time
Processing times continued to improve in 2006-07. The target of 75 per cent of applications (people) finalised within 12 months was exceeded, with 75 per cent being finalised within five months and 92 per cent of cases finalised within 12 months.
Applications
In 2006-07, a total of 80 286 applications (persons) were made offshore, which was 1396 (or 1.7 per cent) less than in 2005-06.
Mobile team visits
The department sends mobile teams to refugee locations offshore for periods of up to four weeks to interview humanitarian visa applicants.
In 2006-07 mobile teams were deployed to the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia. The teams are usually small in number and comprise departmental staff and interpreters where required. Their role is to supplement the work of the overseas posts in processing refugee and humanitarian visa applications.
Mobile team members work in conjunction with locally engaged staff and our Australian staff based in the relevant country. Since 2003-04, 44 teams have been deployed to various locations around the world. In 2006-07, nine teams were deployed to Thailand, Guinea, Kenya and Jordan.
Cultural orientation
The department introduced the Australian Cultural Orientation (AUSCO) Programme in 2003 for refugee and humanitarian entrants preparing to settle in Australia. During 2006-07 the department advertised a global tender for the new AUSCO contract. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) was successful and in September 2006 was contracted to deliver the course on behalf of the department until 2009.
AUSCO is available to all refugees and Special Humanitarian Programme entrants over the age of five and is delivered over five days to ensure adequate coverage of all topics in sufficient detail. The AUSCO course is designed for and delivered to four main groups – adults, youth, children and pre-literate entrants.
In 2006-07 AUSCO classes were delivered in relevant languages in Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, India, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, assisting 6617 entrants.
The AUSCO course provides an initial introduction to aspects of Australian life and aims to enhance entrants’ settlement prospects, help create realistic expectations for their life in Australia and assist entrants to acquire information concerning Australian culture prior to arrival.
The AUSCO Programme Consultative Committee was established in November 2006 and met twice in 2006-07 to review existing curriculum materials and develop evaluation procedures and a risk matrix for the AUSCO Programme.
Pre-departure medical screening
Pre-departure medical screening has been successfully operating in East and West Africa since August 2005 and in North Africa and Thailand since April 2006.
Pre-departure medical screening is provided for refugee and humanitarian visa holders about three days before they travel to Australia. This examination is in addition to the stringent health screening applicants undertake to determine whether they have met the health requirements for a visa grant. The screening provides tests for communicable diseases and assesses clients’ general health status and fitness to travel. This process recognises that due to the length of time that may have passed between the initial visa medical and departure to Australia (combined with living conditions such as those in refugee camps), a client’s health status may have changed.
Pre-departure medical screening is due to be further extended to other key refugee and humanitarian locations to reflect the shifting composition of the Humanitarian Programme. Screening will be implemented in further locations in Asia, the Middle East and southern Africa in 2007-08.
No-interest loan scheme
At the end of 2005-06, IOM changed the lending criteria of its no-interest travel loan scheme for Special Humanitarian visa holders to increase loan take-up and better meet the government’s $2.5 million funding goal. In 2006-07, the department monitored the impact of these changes and noted that there was a 55 per cent increase in the number of loans granted in the first six months following the changes and a 49 per cent increase in the number of loan-assisted humanitarian visa holders arriving in that time.
Funding for UNHCR projects
Australia continued its assistance to the UNHCR to improve its capacity to deliver resettlement referrals for the Australian programme. Projects totalling $183 618 were funded in the Middle East and South West Asia, including:
- a 12-month deployment of a resettlement officer to Beirut, Lebanon, who will primarily focus on Iraqi refugees in the region
- a contribution to the census of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal in advance of a resettlement solution for this group
- a project in New Delhi, India to identify and assist refugees, including through resettlement, with an emphasis on women and girls at risk and protracted cases.