Under the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s (DIBP) Humanitarian Programme, Australia accepts a certain number of people every year who are refugees or have special humanitarian needs.
The Humanitarian Programme intake numbers are set each year. These numbers are influenced by UNHCR assessment of resettlement needs overseas, the views of organisations within Australia conveyed during community consultations and Australia’s capacity to assist.
The Humanitarian Programme has two main components:
- offshore resettlement for people who are found to be refugees (and others whose need for protection has been acknowledged) in another country before they come to Australia, and
- onshore protection for people who come to Australia with a valid visa and make a successful claim for asylum after they arrive.
In addition, asylum seekers who arrived in Australia without a valid visa (prior to offshore detention policies being implemented) but are not transferred to Nauru or Manus Island may be granted Temporary Protection Visas or Safe Haven Enterprise visas.
In 2015–16, the Humanitarian Programme was set at 13,750 places. A total of 13,765 visas were granted under the annual Humanitarian Programme, of which 11,762 visas were granted under the offshore component and 2003 visas were granted under the onshore component.
In addition, 3790 humanitarian visas were granted in 2015–16 under the Government’s commitment to provide an additional 12,000 visa places for people displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq. This brought the total number of Humanitarian visas granted in 2015–16 to 17,555 (15,552 offshore).
In 2015–16, 1277 visas were granted to Woman at Risk visa applicants. The Government had committed to granting at least 1200 woman at risk places in 2015–16.
In 2015–16, a total of 77,026 people lodged applications under the offshore programme component compared with 62,946 in 2014–15.
Humanitarian Programme figures
| Humanitarian Programme grants by category 2011–12 to 2015–16 | |||||
| Category | 2011–12 | 2012–13 | 2013–14 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 |
| Refugee | 5,993 | 11,980 | 6,491 | 5,994 | 8,284 |
| Special Humanitarian Programme | 714 | 503 | 4,505 | 5,007 | 7,268 |
| Onshore | 7,037 | 7,505 | 2,751 | 2,747 | 2,003 |
| Total | 13,744 | 19,988 | 13,747 | 13,748 | 17,555 |
Source: DIBP