COVID-19 Forces Border Closures to Those Seeking Refuge
By Emma Carolan, CRA Justice Research Officer
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have reported the unprecedented and rising number of 80 million refugees and forcibly displaced persons globally in the year 2020, with millions of unknown others, who have been forced to flee their homelands for fear of their lives. Threatened by religious, ethnic or political persecution, war and conflict, environmental disasters and climate change, many have come to Australia seeking protection.
However, from March this year, Australia’s borders have been closed to everyone other than Australian citizens and permanent residents, removing any pathway for asylum seekers to travel to Australia and apply for protection, with the granting of offshore humanitarian visas suspended on 19 March. Likewise, the resettlement of refugees already granted a visa under the offshore humanitarian program has been largely
suspended, in line with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), who called for a suspension of resettlement travel. The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the Australian Government reaching its target of 17,100 offshore refugee resettlement visas in 2019-20 and the UNHCR goal of resettling 70,000 refugees globally in 2020.
As of 17 April, 11,504 offshore refugee and humanitarian visas had been granted, reaching only 67.3% of Australia’s annual offshore visa target. The Department of Home Affairs has continued to process applications in anticipation of borders reopening, but border closures have left approximately 4,000 refugees with humanitarian visas to enter Australia stranded overseas, with Australia granting only 12 emergency rescue (subclass 203) visas and considering another 22.
However, the Federal 2020-21 Budget announced that Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program would be reduced by 5000 places a year, bringing the total number of places down to 13,750.
Refugee Council of Australia Chief Executive Officer, Paul Power, criticised this move, stating:
“The Morrison Government has joined the Trump administration in the United States in cutting refugee resettlement at a time when millions of refugees in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America live in dire circumstances made much worse by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic… Refugees are desperately hoping for safe pathways out of untenable situations, such as the crisis being faced by Syrian refugees living in Beirut, living on the margins of a society which is in deep crisis while hosting more refugees per capita than any country in the world. Australia is not only turning away from refugees but also from the nations and host communities which are at the forefront of large-scale refugee movements.”
A further blow has been dealt to those seeking refuge and the non-government services that support them in the Budget, with financial support for those seeking asylum being reduced from $139.8 million in 2017-18 to $19.6 million in 2020-21, despite an increase in the numbers of asylum seekers. Carolina Gottardo, previous Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia said:
“This budget does nothing to keep people seeking asylum safe, help them get back on their feet, or support them to re-enter the job market. These families and individuals have waited years for their protection claims to be processed, and have worked and paid taxes while waiting. Yet by deliberately excluding these women, children, and men from any financial support whatsoever during a pandemic and a recession, the Federal Government is manufacturing further homelessness, hunger, and ill-health amongst this group of people. In the absence of systemic support, NGOs such as Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), parishes, schools, and diaspora groups are doing our best to fill the gaps. But we are stretched to breaking point. We cannot continue to do the Federal Government’s job for it endlessly.”
Jesuit Refugee Services are providing a way to “share season’s greetings with a social justice twist.” They invite you to send a Christmas message to your local MP and remind them that those seeking refuge will not be so lucky this holiday season. Choose a card design, make a donation, add your MPs email address and the card will be sent. All donations will go directly to JRS’ support services. Click here to begin.