paul howes, page-24

Conflict, insecurity and displacement are key to asylum applications
Tuesday, 23 March 2010

The Australian Government today welcomed the United Nations High Commission for Refugees 2009 report on Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said the report was a timely reminder that push factors such as conflict and human insecurity are the key reasons why people flee their homes to seek protection in industrialised countries like Australia.

The UNHCR report makes clear that asylum applications in Australia in 2009 are still half what they were in 2000 and 2001 under the Howard Government.

The report explicitly states that figures in Australia remain not only below those observed in 2000 (13 100 claims) and 2001 (12 400 claims) but also far below those recorded by many other industrialised countries.

The report emphasised the number of arrivals to Australia remains low by world standards: Australia in 2009 received less than 2 per cent of all applications for asylum in the industrialised world.

The UNHCR report is also a reminder that Australias recent experience of boat arrivals is part of the global challenge of irregular migration.

Australia was among a number of industrialised countries who experienced an increase in asylum seeker applications in 2009: Australias increase of 29 per cent compared with Hungary (+50 per cent), Finland (+47 per cent), Poland (+47 per cent), Belgium (+40 per cent) and New Zealand (+36 per cent).

Significantly, given that Afghans represent the largest cohort of Australias boat arrivals since late 2008, asylum claims by Afghans worldwide increased by some 45 per cent in 2009.

The UNHCR report indicates that Afghan asylum-seekers are now, for the first time since 2001, the largest group seeking asylum in industrialised countries.

While Australia has experienced an increase in Afghan asylum seekers broadly in line with similar trends to comparable other countries such as Norway and Germany it has not experienced increases in other asylum trends such as the increase of asylum seekers from Zimbabwe to the United Kingdom.

Senator Evans said these trends demonstrated how conflict and displacement in Australias region impacted on boat arrivals to Australia.

http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2010/ce10025.htm