Migration and Women at Risk
Posted on Thursday, 8 March 2012
The Coalition will re-focus Australia’s refugee and humanitarian program and give priority to genuine refugees and offshore women at risk.
A Coalition Government will provide a guaranteed minimum of 1,000 places for women at risk and their dependents within Australia’s annual humanitarian intake.
We will ensure that Australia’s refugee and humanitarian resettlement programme provides places to those we can help most and those who are most in need.
Women at risk and their dependents waiting in camps and other desperate places offshore are among the most vulnerable of all who seek a better life in Australia. They have neither the means nor the opportunity to escape their circumstances.
This group will be given a very high priority by a Coalition government in Australia’s refugee and humanitarian programme.
In recent years, the annual intakes in the women at risk category have steadily fallen from 995 visas in 2005-06 to 759 visas in 2010-11.
This reflects the downward trend that has seen fewer places made available to poorer and more vulnerable offshore refugees, including those in the women at risk category. This is a direct consequence of Labor’s decision to abolish the Coalition’s proven border protection policies.
Currently the number of places available for offshore refugee and humanitarian entrants has fallen to fewer than 9,000 places. The Coalition will reserve a minimum of 11,000 places available in the 13,750 place Refugee and Humanitarian programme for offshore applicants. Of these 11,000 places, a minimum of 1,000 Woman at Risk visas will be allocated.
A Coalition government will ensure that appropriate settlement services are provided to women at risk once they arrive in Australia.
Our policies will ensure Australia’s refugee and humanitarian resettlement programme provides hope to the most vulnerable.
8 March 2012