The following opinion piece by Dr Graham Thom, Amnesty International Refugee Campaign Coordinator, was published in the Canberra Times on Tuesday, 24 February 2009.

With the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, visiting Australia this week, our country has a real opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to engage productively with the UN.

Australia has, at least on paper, already committed itself to this. In a discussion paper released by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) in December 2008, it was stated: "One of the government's key priorities is to enhance Australia's engagement with the United Nations. Strengthening our partnership with the UNHCR is an important part of the commitment."

In reality, despite praise last year from the High Commissioner for Australia's recent reforms, there is little scope to strengthen our engagement with UNHCR through our onshore asylum seeker policies. The numbers arriving here remain, despite exaggerated accounts by some, very small. It is through our offshore humanitarian program that Australia has an opportunity to take a real leadership role in supporting the UN in responding to grave humanitarian crises.

There are three key initiatives Australia can take to strengthen its partnership with UNHCR under this program. The first is to offer UNHCR additional referral places at a time when UNHCR has significantly increased its capacity to identify people in need of resettlement. The second is to target key refugee populations in protracted situations, offering multi-year commitments to take people trapped in these camps. The third is a willingness to retain places for those whose lives are at immediate risk and to be able to respond quickly to these emergencies. Importantly - and this is where leadership is required - this includes responding to groups or individuals who are considered "less attractive" by other resettlement countries.

This financial year Australia plans to resettle 13,500 individuals under the humanitarian program, 6,000 of whom are directly referred by UNHCR. Australia, along with the USA and Canada, is already one of the few countries to offer considerable numbers to UNHCR to ensure this vital component of international protection.

Recently a number of organisations in Australia, including Amnesty International, called on the government to increase the number of referral places it offers to UNHCR. While the previous government continually highlighted its contribution to UNHCR through this program, they actually did very little to increase its size over the last 10 years (from 11,000 in 1996 to 13,000 in 2004). When taken as a percentage of Australia's overall immigration program Australia's commitment to the resettling refugees in fact declined in relative terms during this period.

"In 2007, a UNHCR representative stood up in a meeting in Geneva with representatives from all resettlement governments and said: "We have 13 Iraqi Palestinian children in refugee camps on the Syrian border that will die of serious medical conditions if they are not resettled now. Who can take them?" The silence in the room was deafening."

Despite adding an additional 500 places to the program last year, it is highly unlikely, given the current global financial situation, that the government will increase numbers again this year. Apparently, so the argument goes, Australians will find it difficult to be generous to desperate people in harder financial times. Perhaps, though, some of our politicians should look at how amazingly Australians have responded to the appalling bushfire tragedies in Victoria before questioning the ability of ordinary Australians to distinguish between themselves and those in immediate peril. The government needs to make a principled stand based on humanitarian need and continue to increase its offshore program.

Australia has recently signalled to UNHCR a shift in policy focus towards multi-year programs that will help UNHCR resolve a number of longstanding refugee situations. The High Commissioner, at a meeting in Geneva in December last year, put the need to find solutions to five specific protracted situations as a global priority. One of these priorities is the Rohingyan refugees living in camps in Bangladesh. Australia has already agreed to resettle people out of these camps, where 26,000 refugees have been stuck for more than 15 years in appalling conditions.

Supporting UNHCR in this way is important and should be applauded, but a balance in the program must be retained in order to respond to refugees in immediate crisis situations. In 2007, a UNHCR representative stood up in a meeting in Geneva with representatives from all resettlement governments and said: "We have 13 Iraqi Palestinian children in refugee camps on the Syrian border that will die of serious medical conditions if they are not resettled now. Who can take them?" The silence in the room was deafening. Ultimately it took six months to resettle the children who survived - in the intervening time three of them died. Australia was not one of the countries to resettle them.

The refugees in these camps were considered "unattractive" by resettlement states because of the difficulties in reaching them and, one can only assume, because of the simple fact that they are Palestinian. Importantly, Australia and Canada have recently agreed to examine cases from these camps. This is not a guarantee they will be resettled, but it is an important first step.

It is responding to populations such as these Australia, as a major resettlement country, must show greater leadership. If the big three resettlement countries do not react quickly, or worse, choose to ignore certain groups, then a vital component of international protection is seriously compromised. The visit by Antonio Guterres will provide Australia with an important opportunity to strengthen its partnership with UNHCR. Guaranteeing we can and will respond quickly to populations at immediate risk is a vital first step.