Advance Reading #3 for Oct. 9, 2014 Foreign Affairs Discussion

Transcription

1 Advance Reading #3 for Oct. 9, 2014 Foreign Affairs Discussion Resettlement from outside Canada Apply for refugee status from within Canada, find out how to come to Canada as a refugee, sponsor a refugee or find refugee services in Canada. People who can be resettled from outside Canada fall into two classes. 1) Convention Refugee Abroad Class You may be in this class if you: are outside your home country; and cannot return there due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on: o race, o religion, o political opinion, o nationality, or o membership in a particular social group, such as women or people with a particular sexual orientation. You must also be: outside Canada, and want to come to Canada, referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or another referral organization, or be sponsored by a private sponsorship group, and selected as a government-assisted or privately sponsored refugee, or have the funds needed to support yourself and any dependents after you arrive in Canada. 2) Country of Asylum Class You may be in this class if you: are outside your home country or the country where you normally live and have been, and continue to be, seriously and personally affected by civil war or armed conflict, or have suffered massive violations of human rights. You must also be: outside Canada, referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or another referral organization or be sponsored by a private sponsorship group, and privately sponsored, or have the funds needed to support yourself and any dependants after you arrive in Canada.

2 You will have to pass a medical exam and security and criminal checks. Some people are not eligible You are not eligible to resettle to Canada as a refugee from outside Canada if: you have another secure offer for protection, such as an offer to be resettled in another country; you become a citizen of another country and have the protection of that country; you choose to return to live in the country you had left; or the reasons for your fear of persecution no longer exist. Want to live in Quebec? The Province of Quebec selects its own refugees. Find out about Québec s procedures for selecting refugees abroad. Help from within Canada Canada has several programs to help refugees resettle in Canada. Health care The Interim Federal Health Program provides limited and temporary coverage of health care benefits to refugees. Help to adjust Moving to a new country is never easy. With funds from CIC, service provider organizations offer programs that can help refugees adjust to life in Canada. Financial assistance The Canadian government has several financial programs to help refugees establish themselves in their new home. Assistance for government-sponsored refugees Government-assisted refugees receive initial resettlement support in Canada from the Government of Canada or Quebec. This support is delivered by CIC-supported nongovernmental agencies.

3 Your rights You have certain rights as a refugee and may have access to Canadian services while you are in Canada. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects all people in Canada. Sponsor a refugee Do you have questions about how to sponsor a refugee? For general information about sponsoring a refugee, check out our Help Centre. For information on how you can get involved and become a sponsor or for questions regarding the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program, the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP) can help. Each year, millions of people are forced to flee their homelands to escape persecution, war or severe human rights abuses. Often these people can never return home. The Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program helps thousands of refugees every year. You or your group can sponsor refugees from abroad who qualify to come to Canada. As a sponsor, you provide financial and emotional support for the refugees for the duration of the sponsorship. This includes help for housing, clothing and food. Most sponsorships last for one year, but some refugees may be eligible for assistance from their sponsors for up to three years. Refugees must qualify for entry under Canada s laws and must pass medical and security checks before they can come to Canada. Sponsorship Agreement Holders A number of groups across the country have signed agreements with the Government of Canada to help support refugees from abroad when they resettle in Canada. They are known as sponsorship agreement holders. Blended Visa Office-Referred Program The Blended Visa Office-Referred (VOR) Program matches refugees identified for resettlement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with private sponsors in Canada. Groups of five A group of five or more Canadian citizens or permanent residents over the age of 18 can sponsor one or more refugees to come to Canada and settle in their area.

4 Community sponsors Some community groups can sponsor refugees to come to Canada. Joint Assistance Sponsorship Program Organizations can work as partners with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to resettle refugees with special needs. Sponsors in Quebec Quebec has its own process to sponsor refugees. Find more about refugee sponsorship in Quebec. Claim refugee protection from inside Canada On December 15, 2012, Canada s asylum system changed. Under the new system, asylum claims will be heard faster. This means that those who need Canada s protection will get it faster, while those who do not, will be sent home faster. Find out more about these changes. Canada offers refugee protection to some people in Canada who fear persecution or who would be in danger if they had to leave. Some dangers they may face include the following: torture; a risk to their life; or a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. If you feel you could face one of these risks if you go back to your home country or the country where you normally live, you may be able to seek protection in Canada as a refugee. The Facts: Asylum in the UK What is the difference between a refugee and an asylum seeker? What are refugees? A refugee is a person who: 'owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country'

5 Article 1, 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees What is an asylum seeker? An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for asylum and is waiting for a decision as to whether or not they are a refugee. In other words, in the UK an asylum seeker is someone who has asked the Government for refugee status and is waiting to hear the outcome of their application. Does the UK have more asylum seekers than most countries? No it does not. With an estimated 109,600 asylum applications, Germany was the largest recipient of new asylum claims in The United States of America was second with 84,400 asylum applications, followed by South Africa (70,000), France (60,200), and Sweden (54,300). By comparison, the UK received 23,507 new applications for asylum by the end of (Source: UNHCR 2013 Global Trends Report) How many refugees are there in the UK? At the end of 2013, the population of refugees, pending asylum cases and stateless persons made up just 0.23% of the population. That s 126,055 refugees, 23,070 pending asylum cases and 205 stateless persons. The vast majority of refugees stay in their region of displacement, so that 86% of the world s refugees are hosted by developing countries. Pakistan hosts the highest number of refugees at 1.6million. Where do asylum seekers in the UK come from? The top ten countries of origin are as follows: Pakistan (3,343), Iran (2,417), Sri Lanka (1,808), Syria (1,669), Eritrea (1,377), Albania (1,326), Bangladesh (1,123), Afghanistan (1,040), India (965), Nigeria (915). What is a bogus asylum seeker? There is no such thing as a bogus asylum seeker or an illegal asylum seeker. As an asylum seeker, a person has entered into a legal process of refugee status determination. Everybody has a right to seek asylum in another country. People who don't qualify for protection as refugees will not receive refugee status and may be deported, but just because someone doesn't receive refugee status doesn't mean they are a bogus asylum seeker. Let us remember that a bogus asylum-seeker is not equivalent to a criminal; and that an unsuccessful asylum application is not equivalent to a bogus one - Kofi Annan

6 What benefits do asylum seekers receive in the UK? The majority of asylum seekers do not have the right to work in the United Kingdom and so must rely on state support. Housing is provided, but asylum seekers cannot choose where it is, and it is often hard to let properties which Council tenants do not want to live in. Cash support is available, and is currently set at per person, per week, which makes it 5.23 a day for food, sanitation and clothing. What is detention? In the UK, thousands of asylum seekers are held in immigration detention centres each year. Under the Detained Fast Track (DFT), asylum seekers are detained for the duration of their application and appeal. As a principle, UNHCR opposes the detention of people seeking asylum, and calls for the use of alternatives wherever possible. In 2012, of 21,843 main applicants for asylum, 11.4% (2,482) applicants were detained under DFT. In 2011, 10.7% of asylum claims were accepted onto DFT. In 2013, 203 children were detained in immigration removal centres, with 155 being under the age of 11. What is subsidiary or humanitarian protection? Subsidiary protection can be given to people who do not meet the 1951 Convention s legal definition of a refugee but are still in need of international protection. Across the EU, the Qualification Directive provides subsidiary protection for those facing the following threats if returned to their country: (1) the death penalty or execution; (2) torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or (3) threats from an international or internal armed conflict. The UK uses the legal term humanitarian protection to meet this Directive, and in 2013 granted 53 people humanitarian protection. A further 540 applicants were given 'discretionary leave to remain', a form of temporary permission which is unlikely to be more than three years. Refugee Council of Australia Myths about refugees and asylum seekers: Detailed mythbuster The circulation of myths and misinformation is one of the biggest barriers to understanding the issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers. Myths create confusion and can fuel conflict, resentment and disharmony.

7 This page aims to highlight the common myths about refugees and asylum seekers and correct the record for people seeking accurate information. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are illegals. It is not a crime to enter Australia without authorisation for the purpose of seeking asylum. Asylum seekers do not break any Australian laws simply by arriving on boats or without authorisation. Article 31 of the Refugee Convention clearly states that refugees should not be penalised for arriving without valid travel documents. What may be considered an illegal action under normal circumstances (e.g. entering a country without a visa) should not, according to the Convention, be considered illegal if a person is seeking asylum. Australian and international law make these allowances because it is not always safe or even possible for asylum seekers to obtain travel documents or travel through authorised channels. Refugees are, by definition, people fleeing persecution and in most cases are being persecuted by their own governments. It is often too dangerous for refugees to apply for a passport or exit visa or approach an Australian Embassy for a visa, as this could put their lives, and the lives of their families, at risk. Refugees may also be forced to flee with little notice due to rapidly deteriorating situations and do not have time to apply for travel documents or arrange travel through authorised channels. In other cases, refugees may be unable to obtain travel documents because they do not have identity documentation or because they cannot meet the necessary visa requirements. Australia has very restrictive policies which work to prevent citizens of countries where persecution is widespread from getting access to temporary visas of any kind. These policies leave many people seeking to flee to Australia with no way of entering in an authorised manner. Permitting asylum seekers to entry a country without travel documents is similar to allowing ambulance drivers to exceed the speed limit in an emergency - the action may ordinarily be illegal but, in order to protect lives at risk, an exception is made. Asylum seekers are queue jumpers. They should apply through the proper channels, rather than applying onshore. This myth is based on misconceptions about how Australia s onshore refugee program and the international refugee resettlement system actually work. Seeking asylum is not a way of jumping the queue or bypassing the proper channel for applying for protection. In fact, seeking asylum is standard procedure. As a refugee is by definition a person outside his or her country of origin, every refugee in the world must have, at some point, entered another country to seek protection. Most refugees either return home once the conditions which forced them to leave have improved, or stay in the country where they sought asylum. For some refugees, however, these solutions are not possible. Ongoing conflict and human rights abuses in countries of origin may prevent refugees from being able to return home safely in the foreseeable future. Countries of asylum

8 may be unable, or may simply refuse, to provide effective protection or assistance to refugees and asylum seekers. Additionally, some refugees may be in a particularly vulnerable situation due to factors such as disability, gender, risk of detention, complex health issues and isolation from community support. In these sorts of cases, it may be necessary for refugees to be resettled in another country. However, resettling refugees does not allow countries to opt out of their obligations towards people seeking asylum. Resettlement is meant to act as a complement to other strategies for protecting refugees; it is not meant to be a substitute for providing protection and assistance to refugees who arrive as asylum seekers. It is not a matter of resettlement being the only proper channel, or even the preferred channel, through which to find protection - it is simply a different solution based on different circumstances. In fact, it doesn t make sense to argue that refugees should apply for resettlement from overseas rather than seeking asylum, because seeking asylum is a prerequisite for resettlement: it is only through formally registering their status that a person can be identified by UNHCR as a candidate for resettlement. If all countries adopted the attitude that refugees should be resettled from overseas rather than seeking asylum, the international system of refugee protection (including the resettlement system) would collapse. Moreover, resettlement is the exception rather than the rule. There are currently 15.4 million refugees in the world but only around 85,000 resettlement places are available annually, meaning that less than one per cent of the world s refugees are resettled each year. At this rate, it would take over 180 years for all of the world s refugees to be resettled. While resettlement remains an essential solution for some refugees and more resettlement places are certainly needed, it is not necessary, possible or even desirable for all of the world s refugees to be resettled. For the majority of refugees, returning home once the conditions which forced them to leave have improved or settling permanently in the country where they first sought asylum are far more practical and desirable solutions compared to being resettled in another country. Even for refugees who are in need of resettlement, there is no orderly resettlement queue to join. In reality, the resettlement system works more like a lottery than a queue. Very few resettlement places are available globally and, while UNHCR aims to prioritise those in greatest need, most refugees - even people in very vulnerable situations - cannot realistically expect to be resettled in the near future, if ever. Many refugees lack access to UNHCR s resettlement processes altogether and simply do not have resettlement available to them as an option. It is unreasonable to expect refugees to remain indefinitely in situations of danger and insecurity, or to penalise them for seeking their own solutions, when the international community fails in its responsibility to provide effective protection. Asylum seekers take places away from refugees who are waiting patiently for resettlement overseas. This myth does have some basis in truth. However, this is not because asylum seekers are trying to distort the system or jump the queue - they have a right to seek asylum and Australia has a responsibility to process their claims. Rather, it is the result of an Australian Government policy which could easily be changed.

9 Australia s refugee program has two components - the onshore component, for people who or people who apply for refugee status after arriving in Australia; and the offshore component, through which Australia resettles recognised refugees and other people in need of protection and assistance from overseas. The onshore and offshore components are numerically linked, which means that every time an asylum seeker is recognised as a refugee and granted a visa, a place is deducted from the offshore program. The linking policy blurs the distinction between Australia s legal obligations as a signatory to the Refugee Convention (addressed through the onshore component) and our voluntary contribution to the sharing of international responsibility for refugees for whom no other durable solution is available (addressed through the offshore component). The perception that there is a resettlement queue which onshore applicants are trying to evade is actually created by a policy which could easily be changed. No other country in the world links its onshore and offshore programs in this way and Australia did not do this prior to Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are economic migrants. An asylum seeker is, by definition, a person who claims to be a refugee and is waiting for that claim to be assessed. It is impossible to say one way or the other whether their protection claims are credible until they have been assessed. Historically, however, the vast majority of asylum seekers who have reached Australia by boat have been found to be refugees. According to figures compiled by the Australian Parliamentary Library, between 70 and 97 per cent have typically been found to be refugees. In , 88 per cent of asylum seekers who arrived by boat were found to be refugees. Even if an asylum seeker is found not to be a refugee, however, it doesn t necessarily mean that the person is an economic migrant or that his or her refugee claim was made up. It simply means that the person isn t a refugee. For example, some asylum seekers may legitimately fear persecution but this fear may not be well-founded (e.g. they don t have enough evidence to back up their claims) or they may fear a form of mistreatment which isn t sufficiently serious to trigger Australia s protection obligations. Even people who have a well-founded fear of serious persecution may be found not to be refugees if they are able to avoid persecution by moving to another area within their home countries, or if the authorities in their home countries are able to provide effective protection. Tough border protection policies will save lives and stop people smugglers. Everyone agrees that we should stop people smuggling ventures which exploit asylum seekers and place them in danger. No one wishes to see asylum seekers board unreliable vessels and risk their lives to reach Australia. However, penalising desperate and vulnerable people, who have not committed any crime and are in need of protection and assistance, is not the answer. Policies which put people at risk, inflict harm on asylum seekers or deliberately impede access to effective protection are not acceptable ways of addressing the problem. Asylum seekers are drawn to Australia because it has been seen as one of the few countries in the region which respects international law and human rights, treats people humanely and protects

10 refugees and asylum seekers from being returned to situations of danger or persecution. These are not soft policies but responses built on basic standards of human decency. Australians should be proud that Australia has enjoyed an international reputation for respecting human rights. Attempting to change this reputation by treating asylum seekers inhumanely would make us little better than the countries from which they are fleeing. In any case, the push factors that compel refugees to flee their homes will always be more compelling than the pull factors in countries like Australia. Refugee flows are primarily affected by war, unrest, violence and human rights violations. Most people do not wish to leave their homes, families, friends and everything they know and hold dear. They do so as a last resort, to escape persecution and find safety and security for themselves and their families. For many refugees, this search for safety does not end once they have escaped their country of origin. Many countries fail or refuse to provide effective protection to refugees and conditions are often very difficult; sometimes, conditions are little better than those from which refugees originally fled. These conditions drive many people to seek protection elsewhere in the hopes of finding genuine safety and effective protection - including through enlisting people smugglers and undertaking risky journeys at sea. So long as refugees aren t getting the protection to which they are entitled, people smugglers will have a product to sell. To put the smugglers out of business, we need to ensure that people who need protection actually get it by working with other countries to improve conditions for refugees and asylum seekers. People who seek protection in Australia are country shopping. They could have stopped in other safe countries along the way. There are no hard-and-fast rules for determining whether a country is safe for refugees and asylum seekers. However, refugees are generally thought to have found effective protection if the following conditions are met: The country in which they have sought protection has a clear framework for assessing refugee claims and providing protection; Asylum seekers can have their claims assessed through a fair and credible system of status determination; People who are found to be refugees have a secure legal status and will be protected against forcible return to their country of origin (refoulement); Refugees have access to services and support necessary to ensure a decent standard of living; Refugees have access to a durable solution within a reasonable period of time; and The human rights of refugees and asylum seekers are respected and upheld. Under international law, once a refugee has found effective protection from persecution, they are no longer considered to be in need of protection from other countries. If they wish to move to another country, they must do so as an ordinary migrant; otherwise, they can be returned to the country where they first sought and obtained protection. For example, a refugee who sought asylum in Australia after they had already sought and received effective protection in Canada would simply be returned to Canada, without having their asylum claim assessed by Australia.

11 However, if an asylum seeker applies for protection or travels through a country which fails or refuses to provide effective protection to refugees, they are well within their rights to seek asylum elsewhere - even if they have been recognised as a refugee while in that country. This is because different countries provide different levels of protection to refugees. The countries which happen to be closest to a refugee s country or origin or which are easiest for refugees to reach are not necessarily countries which are able or willing to provide effective protection. In the Asia-Pacific region, for example, few countries provide effective protection to refugees and conditions for people seeking protection are very difficult. Many countries in the region have no domestic asylum process and restrict access to asylum processes offered by UNHCR. People seeking protection are typically unable to work legally, own or rent property, access health care or send their children to school. They frequently face violence (including torture and sexual and gender-based violence), harassment, exploitation and abuse and are at risk of being detained and forcibly returned to their country of origin. These conditions drive some refugees to move on to Australia in the hope that it may offer them the protection that other countries have failed or refused to provide. We need to discourage irregular movement so that we can establish an orderly asylum process. The idea that there is, or can be, an entirely orderly process for seeking asylum ignores the reality that forced displacement is anything but orderly. When fleeing persecution, violence and human rights violations, refugees are most often not able to obtain travel documents or arrange travel through authorised channels. Moreover, Australia has very restrictive policies which work to prevent citizens of countries where persecution is widespread from getting access to temporary visas of any kind. These policies leave many people seeking to flee to Australia with no way of entering in an authorised manner. There are measures we can take to reduce the likelihood of asylum seekers undertaking risky journeys in the search for protection. Promoting better standards of refugee protection throughout the Asia-Pacific region, for example, would enable refugees to find safety closer to home, precluding the need for them to travel further afield. However, it is impractical and fundamentally unrealistic to base refugee policies on the expectation that flight from persecution can be shaped into a neat-and-tidy phenomenon. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are a security threat. They could be criminals or terrorists. The vast majority of asylum seekers who have reached Australia by boat have been found to be refugees. According to figures compiled by the Australian Parliamentary Library, between 70 and 97 per cent have typically been found to be refugees. In , 88 per cent of asylum seekers who arrived by boat were found to be refugees. All asylum seekers must undergo rigorous assessment processes to obtain permanent residency in Australia on humanitarian grounds. Those who arrive by boat without authorisation are automatically detained and must pass identity, health and security checks before they can be released into the community on a temporary visa. They are only allowed to stay permanently in

12 Australia if they are found to be in need of protection against persecution, torture or other forms of inhumane treatment, and pass the necessary security and character checks. It is very rare for a refugee to receive an adverse security assessment. Since 2009, ASIO has issued adverse security assessments to 63 refugees who arrived by boat. By contrast, between and , 9,636 refugees who arrived by boat passed the security checks required for the grant of a Protection Visa. This means that fewer than one per cent of refugees who arrived by boat over this period received an adverse security assessment. The UN Refugee Convention excludes people who have committed war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or other serious non-political crimes from obtaining refugee status. Any person who is guilty of these crimes will be denied refugee status. Additionally, all asylum seekers must undergo rigorous security and character checks before they are allowed to live in the community or are granted permanent residency in Australia. It is therefore highly unlikely that a war criminal, terrorist or any other person who posed a security threat would be able to enter Australia as a refugee. It is also improbable that a criminal or terrorist would choose such a dangerous and difficult method to enter Australia, or subject themselves to such scrutiny. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat threaten Australia s border security. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat without authorisation do not threaten Australia s border security or the integrity of our immigration processes. This is not only because the numbers arriving are small compared to overall movement of people across Australia s borders - 24,173 asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat in , while around 4.7 million permanent and temporary visas were granted - but also because asylum seekers arriving by boat are not trying to enter Australia unnoticed. On the contrary, they willingly present themselves to Australian authorities so that they will have a chance to apply for protection. People fleeing persecution have a vested interest in cooperating with the immigration authorities and systems, to ensure that they will not be sent back to a situation where their lives or freedom may be in danger. The reason they arrive without authorisation is not because they are trying to evade normal immigration processes, but because it is too difficult or dangerous for them to travel through authorised channels (see our response to the myth that asylum seekers who arrive by boat are illegals). Australia is being swamped by asylum seekers. Compared to other refugee-hosting countries, Australia receives a very small number of asylum applications. In 2012, Australia received 29,610 asylum applications, just 1.47 per cent of the more than two million claims lodged across the world through individual application and group recognition processes. By contrast, Turkey received 325,301 asylum applications - more than ten times the number received by Australia. Moreover, the number of people granted permanent residency under Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian Program is well under one-tenth of Australia s annual migration intake.

13 In 2013, 20,587 asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat. While this was the highest number ever recorded in Australia, it is still a relatively small number in global terms. In 2012, boat arrivals to Yemen hit a record high of 107,500 people, more than five times higher than Australia s record total. In 2013, more than 385,000 Syrian refugees arrived in Turkey, over 18 times the number of people arriving by boat to Australia in Within the space of just three weeks of February 2014, the number of refugees fleeing to Cameroon from the Central African Republic (19,565 people) fell not far short of the number of asylum seekers who arrived by boat in Australia during the whole of Moreover, all of these host countries are far less wealthy than Australia. Turkey has a GDP per capita of around $US11,800, Yemen just over $US1,500 and Cameroon around $US1,300, compared to Australia s GDP per capita of close to $US70,900. Australia takes more than its fair share of refugees. The overwhelming majority of the world s refugees are residing in the developing world in countries neighbouring their own. At the end of 2012, over 80 per cent of the 10.5 million refugees under the mandate of UNHCR were hosted by developing countries. Moreover, the proportion of refugees hosted by developing countries has actually increased from around 70 per cent a decade ago. At the end of 2012, Pakistan was hosting over 1.6 million refugees, Iran was hosting 868,242 and Kenya was hosting 564,933 - dwarfing the 13,750 refugees granted permanent residency by Australia each year. In 2012, Australia offered protection or resettlement to less than one per cent of the refugees protected or resettled in that year. Australia does, however, make an essential contribution to addressing the global refugee situation. Due to the fact that Australia receives relatively few onshore asylum claims, Australia has been able to establish the third-largest resettlement program in the world behind the USA and Canada, and the most generous per capita. While resettlement forms only a small component of international refugee protection, Australia s resettlement program provides a vital solution for refugees who cannot return home and have been unable to find effective protection elsewhere. In 2012, 5,937 refugees and humanitarian entrants were resettled to Australia. Refugees should only be granted temporary protection until it is safe for them to go home. Temporary protection can sometimes be used to meet urgent protection needs in exceptional circumstances. For example, temporary protection may be granted to asylum seekers during a mass influx situation, to allow time for their applications to be assessed individually on a caseby-case basis. However, temporary protection should not be considered a substitute for refugee status and should never be applied arbitrarily without regard for the conditions in a refugee s country of origin. UNHCR notes that once a person is determined to be a refugee, they should not be subjected to constant review of their refugee status but should maintain their status until they fall under one of the cessation clauses in the Refugee Convention. These clauses sets out the situations in which a person s refugee status can be legitimately terminated, such as: when a refugee returns

14 voluntarily to their country of origin; when a refugee gains a new nationality and enjoys the protection of their new country; or when the circumstances which compelled a refugee to flee have ceased to exist. In other words, a refugee remains a refugee unless their status is terminated by their own actions (e.g. through voluntary repatriation) or if there has been fundamental, durable and comprehensive change in their country of origin which allows them to return home safely. The Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) regime, introduced by the Howard Government in 1999 and abolished in 2007, did not uphold this principle. Under this policy, refugees who arrived without authorisation were only granted protection for three years, after which time they had to reapply for protection - regardless of whether conditions in their country of origin had changed. Most TPV holders came from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq where there was no prospect for safe return in the foreseeable future. Around 90% of TPV holders were granted permanent protection when their claims were later reassessed. The TPV policy also had an extremely damaging impact on refugees. TPV holders were unable to apply for family reunion, did not receive adequate settlement assistance (for example, they were ineligible for the free English language classes available to other humanitarian entrants) and were deprived of the stability and security of permanent protection. The psychological damage caused by TPVs due to these factors has been well documented by medical experts. There is also evidence to suggest that TPVs actually encouraged some asylum seekers to undertake risky journeys to Australia. Because TPV holders could not apply for family reunion, some of their family members facing persecution overseas - the majority of whom were women and children - were driven to undertake the same dangerous journey to Australia. After TPVs were introduced, the proportion of women and children amongst asylum seekers arriving by boat increased from around 25 per cent to around 40 per cent. Among the 353 people killed when the unauthorised vessel SIEV X sank in 2001 were 142 women and 146 children, several of whom were attempting to reunite with husbands and fathers already in Australia on TPVs. If someone can afford to pay a people smuggler thousands of dollars to travel to Australia, they cannot be a genuine refugee. Economic status has no impact on refugee status. A refugee is someone who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. It makes no difference whether a refugee is rich or poor - the point is that they are at risk of, or have experienced, persecution. Many refugees who come to Australia are educated middle-class people whose advocacy work, political opinions or profession (e.g. journalists, lawyers) has drawn them to the attention of the authorities and resulted in their persecution. Refugees and asylum seekers receive higher social security payments than Australian age pensioners. A refugee who has permanent residency in Australia receives exactly the same social security benefits as any Australian citizen or eligible permanent resident in the same circumstances.

15 Refugees apply for social security through Centrelink like everyone else and are assessed for the different payment options in the same way as everyone else. The two-year waiting period for Centrelink eligibility which applies to other newly arrived permanent residents is waived for refugees and humanitarian entrants, in recognition of the fact that (unlike other migrants) they often arrive in Australia with few or no financial resources. However, Centrelink payments are calculated at exactly the same rate for both refugees and non-refugees and there are no separate Centrelink allowances that people can receive simply by virtue of being a refugee. A single person with no dependent children applying for the Newstart Allowance (whether or not they are from a refugee background) will receive $ per fortnight, whereas a single person on an Age Pension payment will receive a fortnightly payment of $ A single age pensioner therefore receives around $ more per fortnight than a single refugee (or a single Australian citizen or permanent resident) who qualifies for Newstart. Australian citizens and permanent residents with dependent children on lower to middle incomes (including people from refugee backgrounds) may also be eligible to receive Family Tax Benefits or Parenting Payments. However, none of these allowances are paid at a higher rate than the single age pension. Asylum seekers are not entitled to the same sorts of financial support as citizens or permanent residents. The Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme (ASAS) provides assistance to asylum seekers living in the community who are experiencing financial hardship. ASAS offers income support to cover basic living expenses, paid at 89 per cent of the Centrelink Special Benefit (which is usually paid at the same rate as the Newstart Allowance). This equates to around $ per fortnight, or around $ less than the single age pension. Charity begins at home. We should be helping disadvantaged Australians first, rather than refugees and asylum seekers. Solving problems such as poverty and homelessness is not simply a matter of resources. The most significant barriers to addressing these problems are often structural issues, such as discrimination, lack of political will and the way government systems work. Unless these barriers are addressed, such problems will be very difficult to resolve even if there are plenty of resources available. Many of RCOA s member organisations - such as Anglicare, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Life Without Barriers, Lutheran Community Care, the Salvation Army, the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, St Vincent de Paul Society and UnitingCare - work directly with some of the most disadvantaged people in Australia. They also support fair and humane policies towards refugees and asylum seekers. It is very telling that these organisations clearly do not see helping disadvantaged Australians and helping refugees and asylum seekers as being mutually exclusive. It is also important to note that refugees are not simply a drain on resources. In fact, people from refugee backgrounds and their descendants make important contributions to Australia s economy and society (see our response to the myth that refugees don t contribute to Australian society in any meaningful way).

16 Refugees don t contribute to Australian society in any meaningful way. Research has shown that refugees, once they have the opportunity to establish themselves, make important economic, civil and social contributions to Australian society. Australia s refugees and humanitarian entrants have found success in every field of endeavour, including the arts, sports, media, science, research, business and civic and community life. Former refugees are very entrepreneurial, being more likely to set up their own businesses than other migrant groups. They play an important role in facilitating the development of trade and other links with their countries of origin. Former refugees value the education of their children very highly, with the proportion of young refugees attending an educational institution being higher than other migrants and even than people born in Australia. They make substantial social contributions to Australia through volunteering, promoting community development and engaging in neighbourhood activities and events. Just some of the many Australian high achievers who once were refugees include scientists Sir Gustav Nossal and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, 2009 Victorian of the Year Dr Berhan Ahmed, painter Judy Cassab, comedian Anh Do, filmmaker Khoa Do, author Nam Le, academic Associate Professor My-Van Tran, Dr Anita Donaldson, poet Juan Garrido-Salgado, painter and restaurateur Mirka Mora, actor Henri Szeps, broadcasters Les Murray and Caroline Tran, Australian Rules footballer Alex Jesaulenko, footballer Atti Abonyi, swimmers John and Ilsa Konrads, newspaper editor Michael Gawenda, architect Harry Seidler, business people Sir Peter Abeles, Larry Adler, Ouma Sananikone and Judit Korner, public servant Tuong Quang Luu and politicians Jennie George and Nick Greiner. By definition, refugees are survivors. They have survived because of their courage, ingenuity and creativity. These are qualities which we value in Australia. If we assist newly arrived refugees to recover from the experiences of their past and rebuild their lives in Australia, we will reap the benefits of the qualities and experiences they bring to our society. Pacific Solution From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Pacific Solution is the name given to the Australian government policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Implemented during , it had bipartisan support from the Liberal-National government and Labor opposition at the time. The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies: Thousands of islands were excised from Australia s migration zone or Australian territory. The Australian Defence Force commenced Operation Relex to intercept vessels carrying asylum seekers. The asylum seekers were removed to detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea while their refugee status was determined.

17 A number of pieces of legislation enabled this policy. The policy was developed by the Howard government in response to the Tampa affair in August 2001, and was implemented by then Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on 28 September before the 2001 federal election of 24 November. The policy was largely dismantled in 2008 by the Rudd government following the election of the Australian Labor Party; Chris Evans, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship described it as "a cynical, costly and ultimately unsuccessful exercise". [1] In August 2012, the succeeding Gillard Labor government introduced a similar policy, reopening Nauru detention centre and Manus Island detention centre for offshore processing, [2] and on 19 July 2013, newly returned Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced, "asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia", [3] striking a Regional Resettlement Arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea, [4] to divert all "unauthorised maritime arrivals" to mandatory detention on Manus Island (in PNG) with no possibility of attaining Australian residency. [5][6] Australia wants to resettle refugees on remote island, Cambodian opposition leader says Date August 23, 2014 Lindsay Murdoch Australia has considered sending up to 1000 refugees to live on a remote island off the coast of impoverished Cambodia under a controversial resettlement agreement,, according to an opposition leader in Phnom Penh.Australian officials have visited several sites to accommodate the refugees now on Nauru, including land in Preah Sihanouk province, far from the Cambodian capital where there are few schools, hospitals or other essential services, according to the Phnom Penh Post. Some islands in the province are owned by wealthy Cambodians connected to key government figures.

18 Map of the area in Cambodia where refugees could be sent. Australian officials have also visited sites in Phnom Penh, the newspaper reported. Amid growing condemnation of the agreement expected to be signed soon, a coalition of 21 key human rights and pro-democracy non-government-organisations issued a statement raising "serious concerns" about the reported house hunting and secrecy surrounding the agreement. The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee said it is gravely concerned the two countries will push ahead with the agreement without public scrutiny.

19 Illustration: Matt Golding. "CHRAC is very concerned about the welfare of the refugees who will be settled in Cambodia under this deal," the statement said, adding both countries are acting contrary to the fundamental principle of open government, respect for rule of law and due process. Even before the agreement has been signed Australia has sent a Canberra bureaucrat, Greg Kelly, to Cambodia to take charge of the resettlement program and boosted staff at Australia's embassy in Phnom Penh by 10. Son Chhay, a leading MP in the opposition National Rescue Party, said he had been told Preah Sihanouk had been considered as a possible location to house some of the refugees. "I heard (two months) ago that they might be put on one of the islands off Sihanoukville but I wasn't able to (independently) confirm if this is true," he said. "Normally they would look for land owned by a business connected to a government member, encouraged by the Council of Development of Cambodia, so they could profit from it." Neither Cambodia nor Australia has made public any details of the agreement that has been condemned by human rights groups, refugee advocates and Cambodia's opposition MPs. Refugee advocates believe refugees on Nauru will refuse to voluntarily resettle in Cambodia, holding out hope of getting to Australia.A sticking point in the agreement has been Cambodia's insistence that those coming to Cambodia not be forced.cambodia's foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said discussions with Australia were ongoing."since nothing is official we cannot say anything specifically," he said. Cambodia is one of Asia's poorest nations where strongman prime minister Hun Sen has ruled with an iron-fist for decades, often brutally crushing dissent. Australia is one of Cambodia's largest aid donors, providing more than $329 million over the past four years. Pakistan

20 2014 UNHCR country operations profile - Pakistan Overview Working environment Pakistan currently hosts some 1.6 million registered Afghans, the largest protracted refugee situation globally. Since March 2002, UNHCR has facilitated the return of 3.8 million registered Afghans from Pakistan in the world's largest voluntary repatriation operation. Efforts to promote durable solutions for Afghans are being pursued through the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR), launched at an international conference in Geneva in May 2012, complemented by the Government of Pakistan's national policy on Afghan refugees adopted in July UNHCR will continue to advocate for Pakistan to adopt national legislation on refugees. At the end of July 2013, over 1 million internally displaced individuals (170,000 families) were estimated to be affected by the ongoing security operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). In 2013, there are still three camps for the internally displaced population supported by UNHCR, accommodating more than 80,000 individuals. The security situation in Pakistan remains fragile. Instability in many of the locations in which UNHCR operates limits its movements and presence. In order to improve outreach, the Office maintains close working relationships with its local partners, enabling the provision of assistance to people of concern in areas where UNHCR does not have access. Thanks to the generous support provided by the Government of Pakistan, some refugee villages in the provinces of Balochistan, KP and Punjab are established on governmentowned land; refugee children have access to public schools; and refugees have access to public health clinics.

21 People of concern The main groups of people of concern planned for in 2014 under the Pakistan operation are: Afghan refugees who have fled Afghanistan due to violence and persecution at various times since 1979, of which close to 40 per cent are living in refugee villages and close to 60 per cent in urban and rural host communities throughout Pakistan; and asylum-seekers and individually recognized refugees from various countries, who are living mainly in urban areas, and once recognized by UNHCR under its mandate, are channelled through the resettlement procedures; Three major groups thought to be at risk of statelessness in Pakistan, namely Bengalis and Biharis, as well as people from Myanmar; and Internally displaced families who have relocated within and outside the tribal areas, due to the military operations in FATA. Planning figures TYPE OF POPULATION ORIGIN UNHCR 2014 planning figures for Pakistan Total in country Dec 2013 Dec 2014 Dec 2015 of whom assisted by UNHCR Total in country of whom assisted by UNHCR Total in country of whom assisted by UNHCR Total 2,544,460 2,364,460 2,176,130 1,996,130 1,899,300 1,719,300 Refugees Afghanistan 1,509,190 1,509,190 1,382,590 1,382,590 1,257,190 1,257,190 Somalia Various Asylum-seekers Various 3,400 3,400 1,600 1, Internally displaced Returnee arrivals during year (ex- IDPs) Response Needs and strategies Pakistan 701, , , , , ,190 Pakistan 330, , , , , ,000 The Office's priorities for include: supporting the Government of Pakistan in the implementation of the SSAR and the new national policy on refugees; increasing the potential for durable solutions by preserving asylum space and supporting host communities. Voluntary repatriation remains one of the key elements of the SSAR, with a planning figure of 150,000 individuals repatriating with UNHCR's assistance in However, voluntary repatriation depends on the sustainability of reintegration and on positive developments in relation to the transition period in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal of international security