Hazara Nation

The Age

A $49.2 MILLION program to teach migrants vocational English and make them "job ready" will be funded in the federal budget, following concerns the majority of new arrivals complete the existing course without achieving "functional English".

Vulnerable asylum seekers and migrants will receive case managers, food, clothing and basic living expenses under an extension of the case management and community care pilot, with about $5 million set aside in the budget for 2008-09.

Australia's refugee and humanitarian intake could rise next financial year, after remaining at 13,000 for the past two years.

Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has already promised sanctuary to 100 Iraqis — singled out for death because they worked with Australian troops and diplomats — and about 500 of their family members. The first to be resettled leave for Australia in July.

The Age believes Immigration Minister Chris Evans and Multicultural Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Laurie Ferguson think the humanitarian program could be larger, with Australia receiving up to 90,000 applications for the 13,000 places every year.

The nation's overall migration program has jumped from 74,000 in 1996-97 to 158,000 in 2007-08, but the humanitarian intake has only increased from 9886 to 13,000.

Under the new adult migrant English program, $49.2 million will be provided over four years.

Last year Labor raised concerns that the current program did not take into account that many refugees from war-torn nations were not literate and had had no formal schooling.

In 2005, 89% of those completing the adult migrant English program did so without achieving functional English, according to government figures.

Traineeships will also be offered to give migrants without functional English the opportunity to gain workplace skills and learn English on the job.

The case management and community care pilot was introduced after the Palmer report into the treatment of Cornelia Rau, a mentally ill Australian resident wrongfully detained for 10 months.

Under the pilot, the Immigration Department's most vulnerable clients are assigned one-on-one case managers.

Community groups work with the department to ensure clients have access to food, clothing, basic living expenses, counselling, accommodation and health care, while they wait for the results of their cases.

In last year's budget, $5.6 million was allocated for a continuation of the pilot program.

A similar amount is set aside in this month's budget.

The Refugee Council of Australia has called for the pilot to become a permanent program.