Australia’s Response to Uprooted People

While Australia’s commitment to resettlement is commendable, it is only one aspect of its broader response to refugees. Australia’s commitment to resettlement must be matched with an equivalent commitment to:

1. The Agenda for Protection 
2. Australia’s pledge in 2000 under the Millennium Development Goals (being the poorest of the poor, refugees are a key priority). 
3. Providing development assistance to first asylum countries and post-conflict countries entering the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase.
4. Strengthening the international protection regime and ensuring its support through responsibility sharing
   Ensuring Australia’s primary obligation under the Refugee Convention to protect refugees arriving onshore, stateless people and those fearing serious human rights abuses and/or torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment  
5. Promoting respect for human rights, the rule of law and democracy
   Addressing the root causes of refugee flows by supporting initiatives aimed at resolving conflicts and preventing human rights abuses

Currently, there are major imbalances; 

1. the focus on improving Australia’s RSHP is not matched by efforts to ensure Australia’s primary obligations under the Refugee Convention; 
2. spending on border protection is seriously disproportionate to our assistance for UNHCR and countries of first asylum, and 
3. emphasis on penalties, deterrence and interception/interdiction  rather than greater efforts to resolve the root cause