UNHCR AND HISTORY OF ASYLUM IN

AUSTRALIA

1
 Table of contents:

About the UNHCR council........................................................................................................3

History of asylum seekers in Australia......................................................................................3
Reference list:.............................................................................................................................5

2
About the UNHCR council
 The United nations High commissioner for refugee was created in the year 1950
 It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland
 The primary purpose of the UNHCR is to safeguard the rights and the well-being
of the people of the country (Karlsen, 2016).
 There are more than 9700 people in nearly 126 countries.
 It has helped nearly 59 million refugees, returnees and the internally displaced and
the stateless people.
 There are almost 89% of the staffs who are at the field.
 There are various functions of the UNHCR like:
- Palestine of the refugee mandate
- Public awareness
- Co-operation within the United nations (Fozdar & Banki, 2017)

History of asylum seekers in Australia

 The asylums of Australia are being governed by the statues and the government
policies of Australia.
 There are number of refugees who have sought the asylum in Australia over the
past few decades.
 Historically there are many of the asylum seekers who have arrived through
planes (Newman, Proctor, & Dudley, 2013).
 Other than that in the late 2000s most of the asylum seekers have arrived to
Australia in boats.
 There are many of the asylum seekers who arrived at the boats in Australia are
Vietnamese between 1976 and 1981, Indochinese from 1989 to 1998.
 During the 1990s many of the asylum seekers who are arriving Australia from
Cambodia are being detained. This was done when are the entering the Australian
Migration zone without proper visa for health and checks (McKay, Thomas, &
Kneebone, 2012).
 There are many of the refugees who were from Somalia without proper
documentation and they were being detained for almost 18 months.
 Other than that the refugees of Indonesia where also detained for a period of 707
days and after the detention they were accepted as the genuine refugees.
 The people who were granted the bridging visas they were having the access to
basic government services and Medicare.

3
 They were also given the proper work rights by the government.
 There are more than 870,000 refugees who resettled in Australia since the World
War II (Phillips, 2013).

4
 Reference list:
Fozdar, F., & Banki, S. (2017). Settling refugees in Australia: Achievements and
challenges. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 3(1), 43-66.
“https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Farida_Fozdar/publication/312013965_Settling_refuge
es_in_Australia_achievements_and_challenges/links/5a24ffe2a6fdcc8e86691536/Settling-
refugees-in-Australia-achievements-and-challenges.pdf”

Karlsen, E. (2016). Refugee resettlement to Australia: what are the facts?. Parliamentary

Library. “http://apo.org.au/system/files/52632/apo-nid52632-75421.pdf”

McKay, F. H., Thomas, S. L., & Kneebone, S. (2012). ‘It would be okay if they came through
the proper channels’: Community perceptions and attitudes toward asylum seekers in
Australia. Journal of Refugee Studies, 25(1), 113-133.
“http://www.acrt.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Parliamentary-Library-Asylum-Seeker-Facts-
March-2015.pdf”

Newman, L., Proctor, N., & Dudley, M. (2013). Seeking asylum in Australia: immigration
detention, human rights and mental health care. Australasian Psychiatry, 21(4), 315-320.
“https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Dudley/publication/242333452_Seeking_asyl
um_in_Australia_Immigration_detention_human_rights_and_mental_health_care/links/
57393a1908ae9f741b2be9e3/Seeking-asylum-in-Australia-Immigration-detention-human-
rights-and-mental-health-care.pdf”

Phillips, J. (2013). Asylum seekers and refugees: what are the facts?. Canberra: Department of
Parliamentary Services, Parliament of Australia.
“http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30056720/mckay-itwouldbeok-post-2012.pdf”