Hazara Nation

The Age

AUSTRALIA'S annual refugee intake will be increased by 500 in today's federal budget, with more focus on Iraq and the persecuted Karen people, a Burmese ethnic minority.

The Government is also expected to outline its longstanding pledge to abolish temporary protection visas. The system — which requires refugees to have their asylum cases reassessed after several years — is contentious, with psychologists claiming it extends refugees' trauma by giving them no certainty.
Under the policy, temporary protection visa holders are unable to sponsor their families or visit overseas.

When in opposition, former immigration spokesman Tony Burke even linked the drowning of 300 asylum seekers on the SIEV-X to temporary visas. He said the majority of children on the boat had fathers who had been granted temporary protection in Australia, but were then unable to sponsor their families.

The Age believes Australia's humanitarian program will increase to 13,500 refugees in 2008-09 after remaining at 13,000 for the past two years.

The nation's overall migration program has jumped from 74,000 to 158,000 in 11 years, but the humanitarian intake has only increased from 9886 to 13,000.

The program became mired in controversy last year when former immigration minister Kevin Andrews was accused of playing "ugly race politics" after he claimed the refugee intake from African countries such as Sudan had been cut amid fears they were failing to integrate. Despite the conflict in Darfur, the former government allocated 30% of refugee places to Africans this financial year, down from 70% in 2004-05.

In 2007-08, 35% of the intake was from the Middle East and 35% from Asia.

The Age believes the African component will remain about the same, while this year's intake will focus more on Iraqi and Karen refugees.