Australia to allocate 15,000 places for Afghans in humanitarian and family visa program - SBS News

Australia will allocate 15,000 humanitarian and family visa places to Afghan nationals, following the release of a report detailing failures in Australia's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Australian government has announced it will provide at least 15,000 places for Afghan nationals through its humanitarian and family visa program over the next four years.

In a statement, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said this "increased allocation" includes 10,000 places for Afghan nationals within Australia’s existing humanitarian visa program and at least 5,000 visas within the family stream.

Mr Hawke said there has been an "unprecedented" number of visa applications from Afghanistan, with the Department of Home Affairs receiving more than 32,500 applications for the humanitarian program, on behalf of more than 145,000 individuals. .

She called on the federal government to announce a further 20,000 places in Australia's humanitarian program in addition to existing quotas. .

"Last year, we had approximately 5,000 grants in our humanitarian program of which 12 per cent of those places were already afforded to Afghanistan," she said.

Reverend Tim Costello, executive director of Micah Australia, said in 2017 Australia lifted its humanitarian intake in response to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq when it offered an additional 12,000 people safety, on top of the annual humanitarian intake.

“The announcement by Minister Hawke today does not begin to recognise our relationship with the war, our moral obligation to the people of Afghanistan, and the escalating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan right now," said Arif Hussein, Human Rights Lawyer at Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS)

“Of course more people from Afghanistan need protection, but this announcement means that for every person from Afghanistan who is granted a humanitarian visa, someone from elsewhere who desperately needs protection misses out.”