Australia’s Taken In Less Than 30% Of Its 12K Refugee Pledge After A Year

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September 8, 2016

It’s been a year since Australia’s landmark pledge to accept 12,000 refugees displaced by conflict in Syria and Iraq, but as it stands, only 3,532 of that number have made it to our shores.

A further 3146 have been granted visas but await entry to Australia. Another 6,500 still require medical and background checks before reaching the same status, and remain in refugee camps until they do.

While that’s a far sight better than the frankly pathetic number of 124 individuals who’d been granted refuge by March, it still represents a ponderously slow path of action by the Immigration Department.

Brutal ongoing conflict in the region has essentially displaced an entire generation, but Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has defended their strategy. A statement released today doubles down on the process:

“As a Government we made it clear at the outset this special intake would take time to fulfil, that processing would be thorough, that there would be no shortcuts.”

That commitment to no “shortcuts” has been criticised by World Vision chief Tim Costello and a cadre of other humanitarian organisations.

A joint statement says there is a “point at which [former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s] promise begins to look hollow when it is not honoured and Australia has reached that point.”

It’s not just the time of the operation that has blown out, either: it’s now believed this special intake will cost $1 billion. That’s over $80,000 spent processing each refugee by current practices.

Surely there’s a better way. Surely.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald / ABC.
Photo: Jordan Pix / Getty.