Amnesty International Australia welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Department of Home Affairs on Australia’s 2025-26 Humanitarian Program.
Over several decades, Amnesty International Australia (AIA) has witnessed firsthand the situation facing refugees in refugee camps in our Asia Pacific region, as well as urban refugees across the region and beyond.
In 2018, 2019 and 2023 AIA researchers were able to document the ongoing crisis facing refugees in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, including a visit to assess the situation facing Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
AIA also works closely with NGOs in the region, both on individual cases as well as broader systemic issues. This is often in consultation with the Asia Pacific Refugee Network, of which AIA has been a member of since the groups inception.
AIA has the privilege of attending ongoing consultations with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), including meeting regularly with Australian and Asia Pacific representatives.
Additionally, AIA maintains ongoing engagement with refugee diaspora communities in Australia and has highlighted cases of significant concern with DHA and UNHCR officials in both Canberra and Geneva. These experiences have provided valuable insights into the challenges facing both refugees in countries of asylum and the challenges facing UNHCR and resettlement countries such as Australia.
It is within this context, supported by findings in UNHCR’s Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2025, that AIA understands the current refugee crisis is unprecedented since the Second World War. In 2025, UNHCR considers that more than 2.9 million refugees will be in need of resettlement.
Amnesty International Australia understands the current refugee crisis is unprecedented since the Second World War.
AIA has welcomed the increase to the Humanitarian Program to 20,000 under the current Government in 2023-24. However in the 2024-25 Budget, the Government retained the 20,000 Humanitarian Program places, despite its prior commitment to increasing that number to 27,000.
Given current global need AIA is calling for an increase in the program to at least 30,000 places annually, with an additional 10,000 places for community sponsored and other complementary pathways, as committed to by the current government.
With this noted, AIA’s submission will focus on:
- The International Context
- Regional Resettlement in Asia and the Pacific
- Rohingya Refugees
- Afghanistan
- The Humanitarian Program
- Size of the Program
- Response to crises and emergencies
- Specific Populations of Concern
- Alternative Pathways: the Community Sponsorship Program & the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot
The recommendations in this submission aim to assist in rebuilding Australia’s reputation
as a leading resettlement country and helping to address the worsening global refugee
crisis.
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