1.2.2 Protection visas (onshore)
Objective
- Ensure that Australia efficiently and effectively fulfils its international obligation not to return, directly or indirectly, refugees to their place of persecution.
Description
Protection visas allow for the stay in Australia of people to whom Australia has protection obligations under the Refugees Convention 1951 as amended by the Refugees Protocol 1967.
Performance
The department finalised 5067 Protection visas in 2006-07.
Finalisations include first instance outcomes, outcomes following review tribunal remittals and certain visa cancellation decisions. A total of 2243 Protection visas were granted in the year following primary, review, or ministerial intervention decisions.
These figures represent reduced activity compared to 2005-06. In that year there were 8226 Protection visa finalisations and a total of 5215 Protection visa grants. The lower number of finalisations and grants in 2006-07 reflects the finalisation in the preceding year of a large number of further Protection visa applications from Temporary Protection visa (TPV) and offshore Temporary Humanitarian visa (THV) holders.
During the year there were 3743 Initial Protection visa applications lodged, which is a 13.4 per cent increase on the level of 3300 reported in 2005-06. At 30 June 2007, some 780 Initial Protection visa applicants were awaiting a first instance decision from the department. Of these, 185 (24 per cent) had a Bridging visa in effect with no work rights. Help under the Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme was provided to 1780 Protection visa applicants at a cost of $4.64 million.
In 2006-07, 1699 of the Protection visas granted resulted from initial applications, while 532 resulted from applications for further protection by TPV and THV holders and 12 resulted from ministerial intervention. Of the total of 2243 Protection visas granted during the year, 1701 were counted as part of the Humanitarian Programme. The remainder includes grants of further protection to TPV holders and THV holders who had already been counted as part of the Humanitarian Programme, and grants through operation of law to Australian-born children born to Protection visa holders.
Of the 2243 Protection visas granted in 2006-07, some 85 per cent were permanent Protection visas. This reflects both the small number of unauthorised boat and air arrivals during 2006-07 and that almost all further Protection visas granted to TPV and THV holders were permanent Protection visas.
The department continued to focus on improving mechanisms to ensure the integrity of Protection visa decision-making and further enhanced its biannual quality assurance process.
While this mechanism showed an overall high level of compliance with policy and procedural requirements, it also identified some opportunities to further strengthen processes, for example through increased focus on accurate and timely data entry on case progress and on other improvements in record keeping. The department continued to work with other agencies to reduce waiting times for character and other checks beyond its control.
In 2006-07 the department finalised 5882 ministerial intervention assessments (people) in relation to formal PV applicants. This is an increase of over 23 per cent on the 2005-06 total of 4771 assessments finalised.
The department continued work on country research and analysis to support decision-making. Its Country Information Service (CIS) maintains comprehensive information on the human rights situation in countries around the world. The CIS obtains information from a wide range of sources, including non-government and inter-governmental organisations dealing with human rights, individual country experts, media and Internet information sources.
At the end of June 2007, the CIS held some 8600 hard copy publications and documents and its electronic country information holdings stood at some 140 000 individual information items drawn from over 3650 different sources. Some 22 000 of these information items were added during 2006-07, with more than 43 per cent of them added within one day of publication and around 75 per cent within five days of publication.
Reporting on processing times
In line with the commitment made by the Prime Minister on 17 June 2005 and consequential legislative changes, the department continued to closely manage the timeliness of Protection visa processing and provide reports on applications not finalised within the specified 90-day timeframe.
In 2006-07 the department met the new decision standard for initial Protection visa applications in more than 83 per cent of cases where applicants were in the community and in 94 per cent of the cases where applicants were in immigration detention.
During 2006-07, the secretary provided three reports to the minister on the implementation of the 90 day decision timeframe - the first covering the period 1 March 2006 to 30 June 2006, the second covering the period 1 July 2006 to 31 October 2006, and the third from 1 November 2006 to 28 February 2007.
The reports demonstrated a continuing improvement across the year, including a reduction in the number of cases on hand and an increasing proportion of cases finalised within 90 days. In the majority of cases not processed within 90 days, the reasons for not meeting the standard were outside the department’s control. The causes included external delays such as security assessments or client delay in providing information.
Under the Immigration Advice and Application Assistance Scheme (IAAAS), selected migration agents are funded to provide visa application help to all asylum seekers in immigration detention and to disadvantaged Protection visa applicants and others in the community who are in greatest need. Funding is also provided for information sessions, face-to-face advice, and telephone advice.
There are 23 providers across Australia from commercial practices, legal aid agencies and non-government community bodies providing IAAAS services to people in detention and in the community.
In 2006-07 there was a decrease in the number of people IAAAS helped in immigration detention because of a fall in the number of people in detention pursuing Protection visa applications. Community assistance remained at a level comparable to previous years. However, immigration advice services increased, partly because of an increase in inquiries in Australia about offshore humanitarian visas.
The aggregate effect of these workload shifts has been to reduce slightly the overall expenditure on IAAAS in 2006-07. This is because the cost of providing full application assistance to a person in detention is higher than the cost of providing immigration advice to a person in the community.
The department conducted regular discussions with the UNHCR on matters of policy and practice relating to onshore Protection visa processing and on broader protection-related issues. The department also conduct regular consultations nationally and regionally with representatives of the Australian Red Cross, IAAAS service providers and non-government organisations.
Processing activity relating to people in the Offshore Processing Centre on Nauru is dealt with in this report under output 1.5.