The one millionth permanent humanitarian visa issued since the end of World War II could come as early as the end of this year. Refugee rights organisations say it’s a pertinent time to consider how Australia can improve its response to mass global displacement.
Rebecca Eckart, director of policy and research at the Refugee Council of Australia, said the millionth permanent humanitarian visa is expected to be issued imminently.
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Calls for a better refugee response as Australia approaches one millionth visa milestone
“That means we’ll have had the benefit of over the past 80 years, people who have come through our refugee and humanitarian program arriving in Australia,” she said.
Refugees in Australia
In the five years after World War Two, Australia welcomed over 170,000 European refugees.
The Vietnam War also prompted a large-scale response, with 100,000 settlements over 10 years.
Annual intake was expanded to 22,000 in the 1980s, and in the 1990s, a new Special Assistance visa was introduced in response to conflicts in former Yugoslavia, East Timor, Lebanon and Sudan, among others.The focus then shifted to support refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, including a special annual intake of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees from 2015.Eckart said the visa milestone is a reminder of the diverse individual stories that make up Australian history.
“Today, there’s millions of people who are connected to our humanitarian program, either directly or through their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents. It’s a really momentous time,” she said.
Australia’s approach to asylum seekers
Professor Daniel Ghezelbash, director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, said the milestone offers a chance to reflect on how Australia can improve its response to global displacement. “I really think it’s a cause for celebration and a moment to mark the transformative contributions that refugees and their families have made to our society and our economy over many, many decades now.
“But also to use this moment to reassess some of our current approaches and to try and return to our better instincts,” he said.
Ghezelbash said Australia’s approach to asylum seekers is a continuing source of concern. Australia’s humanitarian program intake is made up of two key groups.Between 1947 and 2023 most permanent visas — more than 850,000 — were issued to those who applied for protection from outside Australia.
Just over 81,000 were issued to those seeking protection after arriving in Australia.
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“I think our relatively generous resettlement program stands in great contrast to the way we treat asylum seekers. And so I think that’s really the room where the biggest concerns and the biggest criticism of our policies come from,” he said. In 2001, Australia implemented a policy of offshore processing for asylum-seekers arriving by boat and the law was amended in 2013 to prevent those arriving by boat from ever gaining permanent visas.
The offshore processing policy has received bipartisan support since 2012 — but Ghezelbash said Australia’s asylum policies have been the subject of widespread international criticism.
“The policy of pushing back asylum seekers at sea have essentially completely shut off access to asylum for people who arrive without authorisation, which are actually the people who are generating most need of protection.”And so these policies aren’t just unlawful under international law, they’re incredibly harmful for the people that they target.”
As Australia prepares to welcome its one millionth refugee on a permanent visa, Ghezelbash said there is cause for celebration alongside urgent calls for reform.
“I think we need to reflect on the ways we can better balance the legitimate concerns about border security with providing people access to protection at a broader level,” he said. “What these policies do is they send a really bad signal internationally and Australia should be a leader when it comes to promoting protection. But in fact, we’ve been doing the exact opposite, setting up these models of deterrence, which have been emulated around the world.”
Tahera Nassrat was forced to flee Afghanistan more than 25 years ago and now works as a tax accountant and business coach in Sydney’s west. She is also the founder of the Afghan Peace Foundation, an organisation that provides financial guidance and employment support to others from refugee backgrounds.
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Nassrat left Afghanistan due to fears her work with an international organisation would make her a target for the Taliban and she initially fled to Pakistan. “I was so scared, of course. Because I’m a woman, and it’s against Taliban belief, you as a Muslim woman, you can’t work with foreigners. I had to leave family, friends, country, memories. Everything you believe is yours, you’re forced to leave. “I left the country not by choice, but because I was forced to take leadership on my life from a very young age.”
Nassrat said a shift in narrative is needed so that those who seek protection are no longer seen as a political problem.
“I hear people say ‘Oh you’re a refugee, you’re always a burden to the government’. I’m here, sitting around the same table as you, I’m contributing,” she said. “Refugees come to a country like Australia, as they do to any other country, with a rich culture, with capability, with responsibility. They want to contribute.”
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