Photo: EPA/NOMI
IN THE MEDIA coverage of the debate about asylum seekers over the past week, the assumption behind the Coalition’s claim that Australia has become a “soft touch” has gone largely unchallenged. Is it true – as the Coalition seems to be arguing – that significantly more asylum claims are being made in Australia than in comparable countries?
The most recent figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees show that the reverse is true. Using data supplied by individual governments, the UNHCR’s statistics reveal that Australia is well down the league table, both in terms of the number of asylum claims and the ratio of claims to our population.
In raw numbers, as the table below shows, Australia received the fifth-lowest number of asylum claims among eighteen comparable western countries over the five years 2004–08. Some countries have recorded massive numbers – 133,390 in Canada, 203,580 in France, 158,630 in Britain – far in excess of Australia’s figure of 18,650. In the first half of this year, the latest period covered by the figures, we were still the fifth lowest out of the eighteen (although the true figure for the United States is uncertain).
In per capita terms – the number of claims for every 1000 members of the national population – Australia was fourth lowest over 2004–08, and fell to third lowest in the first six months of this year. Again, some countries received far more claims than Australia’s 0.9 per thousand population during 2004–08 – 10.2 per thousand in Austria, 6.3 in Belgium, 8.4 in Norway and 13.8 in Sweden – and those sharp differences have carried over into 2009.
Asylum claims rose by 19 per cent in the first full year of the Rudd government, but that too was part of a wider trend. Canada recorded a 30 per cent increase, Denmark 28 per cent, France 20 per cent, the Netherlands 89 per cent and Switzerland 53 per cent, with Norway and Italy each recording increases of more than 120 per cent.
Given Australia’s participation in the UNHCR’s resettlement program, it’s inevitable that a certain proportion of refugees will hear that Australia is sympathetic to refugees and will seek asylum here by irregular means. The fact that we rank so far down the UNHCR’s table has a lot to do with our relative isolation. It’s hard to see how we could reduce that figure further without renouncing the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention, and not even Sharman Stone or Philip Ruddock is suggesting that. •
— Peter Browne
|
|
Total asylum claims |
Claims per 1000 population 2004–08 |
Total asylum claims: first half of 2009 |
Claims per 1000 population: first half of 2009 |
|
Australia |
18,650 |
0.9 |
2,504 |
0.12 |
|
Austria |
85,170 |
10.2 |
7,504 |
0.90 |
|
Belgium |
66,280 |
6.3 |
7,178 |
0.67 |
|
Canada |
133,390 |
4.1 |
18,722 |
0.56 |
|
Denmark |
11,630 |
2.1 |
1,673 |
0.30 |
|
Finland |
15,210 |
2.9 |
2,736 |
0.51 |
|
France |
203,580 |
3.3 |
19,416 |
0.31 |
|
Germany |
126,080 |
1.5 |
11,979 |
0.14 |
|
Ireland |
21,260 |
4.9 |
1,508 |
0.35 |
|
Italy |
74,830 |
1.3 |
9,974 |
0.17 |
|
Japan |
4,180 |
0.0 |
755 |
0.01 |
|
Netherlands |
57,100 |
3.5 |
7,094 |
0.43 |
|
New Zealand |
1,710 |
0.4 |
126 |
0.03 |
|
Norway |
39,630 |
8.4 |
8,166 |
1.69 |
|
Sweden |
125,730 |
13.8 |
10,127 |
1.10 |
|
Switzerland |
64,480 |
8.6 |
7,666 |
1.00 |
|
UK |
158,630 |
2.6 |
17,665 |
0.29 |
|
United States |
252,750 |
0.8 |
* |
* |
Sources:
Columns 2 and 3: Asylum Trends and Levels in Industrialized Countries, 2008, UNHCR, Table 1.
Column 4: New Asylum Applications Lodged in Selected Countries in Europe, North America, Oceania and Asia, 2009, Table 2, accessed 18 October 2009.
Column 5: Calculation by Inside Story based on Column 4, using OECD figures for national population
* For this period the United States has issued two figures: the Executive Office for immigration Review has recorded 6773 claims for asylum; the Department of Homeland Security estimates 16,905 asylum seekers entered the US.
