1. Special humanitarian intakes: Enhancing protection through targeted refugee resettlement
- Author:
- Tamara Wood and Claire Higgins
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney
- Abstract:
- Between 2015 and 2017, Australia provided 12,000 resettlement places for refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq. This special humanitarian intake was an ad hoc, one-off response to international and domestic pressure on the Australian government and reflects similar pledges made by other States to admit Syrian refugees. While Australia’s Syria–Iraq special intake provided invaluable protection for refugees fleeing one of the world’s major humanitarian crises, it raises a number of questions regarding fairness, transparency and efficiency in its implementation. In the context of growing numbers of displaced people worldwide, the Syrian crisis will not be the last situation involving widespread displacement and requiring international cooperation to ensure the protection of refugees. Indeed, the current predicament of large numbers of refugees in places such as Kenya, Bangladesh and the Central Mediterranean also requires stronger responses and support from the international community. This Policy Brief critically analyses special humanitarian intakes from an international and comparative perspective. It examines the normative frameworks applicable to special humanitarian intakes, both in Australia and elsewhere, including international refugee and human rights law, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) global resettlement program, and Australian domestic law. It considers how the Syria–Iraq special intake compares to other similar, one-off arrangements for the relocation and/or resettlement of refugees, such as the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indo-Chinese refugees in the 1970s and 1980s, the humanitarian evacuation of Kosovar refugees in 1999, and the use of individual emergency and urgent resettlement quotas by States such as Sweden and Canada.
- Topic:
- Refugees, Displacement, Resettlement, Humanitarian Response, and Protection
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus