Changing with the 'refugee tide'
Letter to the Editor - Financial Review
14 January 2004
Dear Sir/Madam
It is important to understand the facts before entering into a debate about the number of refugees being resettled in Australia (It's time to change with refugee tide - 10/1/2004).
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Executive Committee regards resettlement as the last resort for refugees and displaced people.
Of the 22 million refugees and people of concern mentioned in your editorial, the UNHCR projects a fraction of one per cent, or around 80 000, will need resettlement this year. As one of a small number of countries that seeks to assist in such resettlement, our efforts are regarded as significant.
Under the system of international protection, the preferred option for the majority of refugees and displaced people is voluntary repatriation to their home country when it is safe. The next preferred option is integration in a country of first asylum.
In regards to asylum seekers on Nauru, the Government responded quickly when the UNHCR indicated it would review the cases of 22 Afghan asylum seekers based on further information about the situation in some parts of the country.
On the same day the Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone, undertook to check the Afghan caseload originally processed by the Australian Government to see which cases might be affected by the information.
It is worth noting that the processing of offshore asylum seekers' claims was conducted by either the UNHCR or the Australian Government using a similar process. It also produced similar results.
Almost half of the 1 500 people on Nauru and Manus were found to be refugees and have been resettled. The recent protesters were part of a group found not to be refugees and who have not returned home, as 473 of the centre's former residents have chosen to do.
Stewart Foster
Director
Public Affairs
DIMIA