Sharp drop in asylum seekers coming to Australia
Syrian refugees carrying bags arrive near the border between Syria and Turkey at Reyhanli in Antakya Photo: BULENT KILIC
The number of asylum seekers claiming refuge in Australia has dropped during the past year, a new United Nations report shows.
The UNHCR report, Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialised Countries, said the number of asylum-seekers coming to Australia in 2011 fell by nine per cent - from 12,640 in 2010 to 11,510 in 2011.
This was largely due to a reduction in the number of people coming to Australia by boat, especially from Afghanistan, the report said.
But worldwide there had been a 20 per cent increase from 2010, to 441,300 seeking asylum in 44 countries covered by the study.
The largest increases were seen in southern European countries, largely driven by people fleeing Libya and other parts of north Africa by boat, and North America.
The largest number of asylum claims in 2011 were received in the United States of America (74,020), France (51,910), Germany (45,740), Italy (34,120), and Sweden (29,650).
Globally, Afghans were recorded as the largest nationality of asylum-seekers in industrialised countries, followed by China, Iraq, Serbia and Pakistan.
The number of Afghans seeking asylum globally was up by a third, but Australia went against the trend with a 45 per cent fall.
''This report shows clearly that the numbers of asylum-seekers coming to Australia are modest - and certainly manageable - when compared to many other industrialised countries,'' UNHCR regional representative Richard Towle said in a statement.
The recent introduction of a single system to assess refugee claims of both boat and air arrivals was a welcome step towards improving the efficiency, fairness and overall quality of the asylum system in Australia, he said.
The Gillard government has been struggling to find an alternative asylum seeker policy in the wake of the High Court's rejection of its agreement with Malaysia.
The opposition and Greens have refused to pass a bill which would give a stronger legal basis for offshore processing.
While working on improving the onshore processing system, the government is also backing a bill - drafted by independent MP Rob Oakeshott - to ensure countries with which Australia works to tackle people-smuggling are signatories to the Bali framework for regional cooperation.
Mr Towle said the UNHCR was encouraging Australia to work with other countries under the framework.
''We are convinced that if people can be made safer and more secure in South East Asia then they will not need to place their lives in the hands of people smugglers and have resort to dangerous boat journeys to Australia,'' he said.
The Greens say the sharp drop in the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia proves the country can afford to open its borders to far more refugees.
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said: ‘‘(The UNHCR report) puts fact to the fiction that both the Labor government and the Liberal opposition continue to bang on about the needs of protecting Australia’s borders against the floods of asylum seekers.
‘‘This report ... shows very squarely that Australia takes less refugees than many other places around the world, less asylum seekers come here, and the small number that do, we can manage.’’
Australia should be proactively resettling asylum seekers directly from source and transit countries to completely avoid costly offshore processing solutions like Malaysia and Nauru, she said.