Fact Sheet 60 – Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian Program

Australia's Immigration Program has two components:

• Migration Program for skilled and family migrants
• Humanitarian Program for refugees and others in refugee–like situations.

This fact sheet provides details of Australia's Humanitarian Program. Details of the Migration Program are available in Fact Sheets 20–40.
See: Fact Sheet Index

Background information

One of the major challenges facing the world today is protecting refugees who have been forced to leave their homes by armed conflict and human rights abuses.

As a member of the international community, Australia shares responsibility for protecting these refugees and resolving refugee situations. This commitment is most strongly expressed through the Humanitarian Program.

The Humanitarian Program has two important functions:

• It fulfils our international obligations by offering protection to people already in Australia who are found to be refugees according to the Refugees Convention (known as the onshore protection/asylum component)
• It expresses our commitment to refugee protection by going beyond these obligations and offering resettlement to people overseas for whom this is the most appropriate option (known as the offshore resettlement component).

Humanitarian Program

Onshore protection

For more information on the onshore protection component of the program.
See: Fact Sheet 61 – Seeking Asylum Within Australia

Offshore resettlement

The offshore resettlement component comprises two categories of permanent visa. These are:

• Refugee for people who are subject to persecution in their home country, who are typically outside their home country, and are in need of resettlement. The majority of applicants who are considered under this category are identified and referred by the UNHCR to Australia for resettlement. The Refugee category includes the Refugee, In-country Special Humanitarian, Emergency Rescue and Woman at Risk sub-classes.
• Special Humanitarian Program (SHP) for people outside their home country who are subject to substantial discrimination amounting to gross violation of human rights in their home country. A proposer who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, or an organisation that is based in Australia, must support applications for entry under the SHP.

More information on proposing someone under the Humanitarian Program is available.
See:
Proposing an applicant
The Special Humanitarian Program (SHP) (365KB PDF file)
Form 681 – Refugee and special humanitarian proposal (320KB PDF file)

Composition of the offshore resettlement program

The size and composition of the resettlement program are influenced by a number of factors. These include:

• an estimate of the number of people likely to be found in need of protection in Australia in accordance with international obligations under the Refugees Convention
• UNHCR assessments of the resettlement needs of refugees overseas
• the views of individuals and organisations in Australia conveyed during community consultations with the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
• Australia's capacity to assist.

Outcomes of 2008–09 program

In 2008–09 a total of 13 507 visas were granted, of which 11 010 visas were granted under the offshore component and 2497 visas were granted under the onshore component.

In the offshore visa component, grants to people from Africa comprised 33.24 per cent; grants to people from the Middle East and South West Asia comprised 33.46 per cent; and grants to people from Asia and the Pacific comprised 33.09 per cent. A small percentage of grants were also made to people from Europe and the Americas. See the tables below for further details on the 2008–09 program outcomes.

2009–10 program

In May 2008 the Government announced an increase in the Humanitarian Program to 13 750 places for 2009–10. This year, the Refugee category will be set at 6000 places and the remaining 7750 places will be made available under the SHP category and for onshore protection needs.

Settlement assistance

Specialised settlement assistance programs are available to assist eligible Humanitarian Program entrants to settle into the Australian community.
See: Fact Sheet 66 – Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy

Humanitarian Program figures

Humanitarian Program grants by category 2003–04 to 2008–09

Category	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09
Refugee	4134	5511	6022	6003	6004	6499
Special Humanitarian	8927	6755	6836	5275	5026	4625
Onshore Protection	788	895	1272	1701	1900	2378
Temporary Humanitarian Concern	2	17	14	38	84	5
Total	13 851	13 178	14 144	13 017	13 014	13 507

Offshore resettlement regional balance from 2003–04 to 2008–09

Region	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09
Middle East & SW Asia	24.29%	26.24%	33.98%	27.95%	35.25%	33.46%
Africa	70.78%	70.16%	55.65%	50.91%	30.48%	33.24%
Asia and the Pacific	1.87%	3.43%	9.88%	20.70%	33.67%	33.09%
Europe and the Americas	3.06%	0.17%	0.49%	0.44%	0.60%	0.21%

2008–09 offshore visa grants by top ten countries of birth

Countries	Number of visa granted
Iraq	2874
Burma/ Myanmar	2412
Afghanistan	847
Sudan	631
Bhutan	616
Ethiopia	478
Congo (DRC)	463
Somalia	456
Liberia	387
Sierra Leone	363

More detailed statistics will be made available in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Annual Report 2008–09 which will be released later in 2009.
See: Departmental Annual Reports

Further information is available on the department's website.
See: www.immi.gov.au

The department also operates a national telephone service inquiry line.
Telephone: 131 881
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm. Recorded information is available outside these hours.

Fact Sheet 60. Produced by the National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Canberra.
Last Reviewed 4 November 2009.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2009.