AUSTRALIA will welcome more refugees fleeing Afghanistan after the Federal Government announced it would fund 16,500 additional humanitarian places over the next four years.
The announcement came as part of last week’s Federal Budget.
Long-time Swan Hill refugee advocate David Hackett believes the announcement is fantastic news, but believes the government needs to make sure the refugees can get to Australia “pronto”.
“We need them as quickly as they have processed the Ukrainian refugees, because the situation (in Afghanistan) is heading towards starvation and brutality,” Mr Hackett said.
“One of our wives (of a local refugee) went to get a passport and got belted – kicked, punched and belted with straps while she protected a young baby,” he said.
“It’s not good, and that is just one example.”
Mr Hackett also believes the humanitarian places need to be somehow prioritised for people who already have family in the Australia.
“If they can get 15,000 or 16,000 of the immediate families, not these broader, extended family members,” Mr Hackett said.
“Yes, they are also in danger, but it’s the ones who haven’t got their husbands and have children that are at risk, we need them here urgently.”
The additional places, prompted by the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan and the country’s subsequent economic collapse, will cost $665.9 million over the four years.
Australia’s official humanitarian program will remain capped at 13,750 places a year, but the additional Afghanistan commitment will lift the annual figure, up to 17,875 until 2025-26.
