AUSTRALIA'S REFUGEE PROGRAMME
Facts + Stats
GLOBAL STATISTICS
1 Number of humanitarian visas granted, by category, in Australia, 1994-95 to 2004-05
The size of the program was 13,000 places, of which 6,000 were reserved for the Refugee category. The 2005-06 program will be the same.
Note that these figures are given for program years i.e. 1 July to 30 June.
| Category |
94-95 |
95-96 |
96-97 |
97-98 |
98-99 |
99-00 |
00-01 |
01-02 |
02-03 |
03-04 |
04-05 |
| Refugee (a) |
3,990 |
4,640 |
3,330 |
4,010 |
3,990 |
3,800 |
4,000 |
4,160 |
4,380 (h) |
4,130 |
5,511 |
| Special Humanitarian
Program (SHP) (b) |
3,680 |
3,500 |
2,580 |
4,640 |
4,350 |
3,050 |
3,120 |
4,260 |
7,280 |
7,670 |
6,585 |
| Special Assistance Category (SAC) (c) |
5,500 |
6,910 |
3,730 |
1,820 |
1,190 |
650 |
880 |
40 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Onshore Humanitarian (d) |
50 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
160 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
17 |
| Onshore Refugees (e) |
1,430 |
1,200 |
2,250 |
1,590 |
1,830 |
2,460 |
5,580 |
3,890 |
870 |
2,050 (i) |
895 (i) |
| Total (f) |
14,650 |
16,250 |
11,890 |
12,060 |
11,360 |
9,960 (g) |
13,740 |
12,360 |
12,530 |
13,850 |
13,008 |
The offshore resettlement program consists of:
-
(a) Refugee category. This includes visa subclasses 200 (Refugee),
201 (In-Country Special Humanitarian), 203 (Emergency Rescue) and 204 (Women At
Risk). Refugees are people outside their country of nationality, who are subject
to persecution in their home country and have been identified in conjunction with
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as in need of resettlement;
-
(b) Special Humanitarian Program (SHP) category. This includes
visa subclasses 202 (Global Special Humanitarian). SHP entrants are people outside
their home country who have suffered substantial discrimination amounting to gross
violation of their human rights and who have been proposed by an Australian citizen,
resident or community group in Australia;
-
(c) Special Assistance category (SAC). This visa category
was discontinued after the 2001-02 program year. This category was for people
who, while not meeting the refugee or special humanitarian criteria, were nonetheless
in situations of discrimination, displacement or hardship. SAC proposers were
required to enter into a written undertaking to provide assistance to the applicant
and his or her dependants for at least six months after arrival.
The onshore resettlement program consists of:
- (d) Onshore Humanitarian category which includes
people granted permanent resident status on humanitarian grounds
or granted Temporary Humanitarian Concern (subclass 786) visas;
- (e) Onshore Refugees category which can
be further divided into:
- Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) subclass
785 (Temporary Protection).
- Permanent Protection Visa (PPV) subclass
866 (Permanent Protection).
Other notes for this table:
-
(f) These figures are rounded thus totals may not be the
exact sum of components;
-
(g) In addition to this number, 5,900 Safe Haven visas were
granted in 1999-00 comprising 4,000 to Kosovars offshore and 1,900 to East Timorese
onshore. Most of these people returned to their country of origin.
-
(h) 498 places were brought forward from the 2003-04 program
year to allow grant of visas which were ready to issue;
-
(i) Includes 1,228 visas granted to East Timorese under ministerial
intervention powers.
Sources: 1. DIMIA (2004) Australia's Support for Humanitarian Entrants, p.2 1. DIMIA (2005) Population Flows: Immigration Aspects 2003 - 2004 Edition, p.30-31 and DIMIA (2006), Factsheet 60: Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian Program.
2 Australia's onshore program
2.1 Onshore visa grants, by category, 2003 - 04.
| Category |
No. visas granted |
| Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) |
185 |
| Permanent Protection Visa (PPV) |
603 |
| Temporary Humanitarian Concern Visa (THCV) |
2 |
| Onshore Special Humanitarian Program (SHP) * |
1,259 |
| Total |
2,049 |
* These visas were for East Timorese asylum seekers.
This was an atypical inclusion in the onshore program.
Source: DIMIA (2004), Population Flows: Immigration
Aspects 2003 - 2004 Edition, p.32
2.2 Onshore applications
by country of origin, 2003-04
| Citizenship |
No. applications |
| China, People's Republic of |
728 |
| India |
403 |
| Malaysia |
208 |
| Indonesia |
193 |
| Iraq |
144 |
| Fiji |
125 |
| Korea, Republic of |
118 |
| Sri Lanka |
118 |
| Bangladesh |
107 |
| Vietnam |
99 |
| Other |
1405 |
| Total |
3648 |
Source: DIMIA (2004), Population Flows: Immigration
Aspects 2003 - 2004 Edition, p.34
2.3 Onshore grants by
country of origin, 2003-04
| Citizenship |
No. granted |
| Iran |
106 |
| China, People's Republic of |
77 |
| Iraq |
53 |
| Afghanistan |
41 |
| Russian Federation |
36 |
| Colombia |
32 |
| Bangladesh |
30 |
| Sri Lanka |
30 |
| Zimbabwe |
27 |
| Other |
356 |
| Total |
788 |
Source: DIMIA (2004), Population Flows: Immigration
Aspects 2003 - 2004 Edition, p.34
3 Overstayers
An overstayer is a non-citizen (of Australia) who remains
in Australia after the expiry of their temporary visa. The largest groups of overstayers
are from the UK and USA. Most came as tourists or on working holiday visas.
An unauthorised arrival is an individual who arrives in Australia
without travel documents or a valid visa or with fraudulent travel documents or
visa.
Not all unauthorised arrivals and only a very small proportion
of overstayers apply for refugee status.
| Year |
No. overstayers |
Total no. unauthorised arrivals |
No. unauthorised arrivals by
sea |
No. unauthorised arrivals by
air |
| 94 - 95 |
51,300 |
1,556 |
1,071 |
485 |
| 95 - 96 |
45,100 |
1,252 |
589 |
663 |
| 96 - 97 |
46,200 |
1,715 |
365 |
1,350 |
| 97 - 98 |
50,950 |
1,715 |
157 |
1,558 |
| 98 - 99 |
53,150 |
3,027 |
921 |
2,106 |
| 99 - 00 |
58,748 |
5,870 |
4,175 |
1,695 |
| 00 - 01 |
60,000 |
5,649 |
4,137 |
1,512 |
| 01 - 02 |
60,400 |
2,470 |
1,277 |
1,193 |
| 02 - 03 |
59,800 |
937 |
0 |
937 |
| 03 - 04 |
50,900 |
1,294 |
53 |
1,241 |
Note: The number of overstayers is estimated by DIMIA at 30 June of each year.
Sources:
1. DIMIA (2005), Population Flows: Immigration Aspects 2003-2004 Edition, p. 35
2. DIMIA (2004), Population Flows: Immigration Aspects 2002-2003 Edition, p. 73
3. DIMIA (2002), Population Flows 2001 Edition, p. 57
4. DIMIA (2001), Population Flows 2000 Edition, p. 56
5. DIMIA (2004), Fact sheet 74: Unauthorised Arrivals by Air and Sea
4 Detention
4.1 The latest figure for the number of persons in
immigration detention facilities in Australia can be found on the DIMIA
website at: Immigration
Detention Facilities. This page is updated weekly.
4.2 Length of time in detention
Source: DIMIA (2005), DIMIA-NGO Dialogue on Humanitarian Issues (25 February 2005)
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