A decision by the Australian government to increase its annual refugee quota to 20,000 has been welcomed by refugee rights groups.
“The increase to Australia’s resettlement quota will provide positive options for more refugees living in very difficult and often dangerous conditions,” said Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia. Amnesty International also welcomed the move, which it had long been calling for.
Amnesty’s refugee coordinator Graham Thom said that previously the government had been more focused on punitive measures, such as the recent establishment of offshore asylum seekers’ processing centres in Nauru and at a remote location in Papua New Guinea.
A three-member expert report had recommended the quota increase as a measure to encourage migrants to use official channels rather than making long and dangerous boat journeys. Hundreds of would-be asylum seekers have perished in inadequate and poorly equipped boats travelling from Sri Lanka, Indonesia and elsewhere.
