CANBERRA: Thousands of people have crammed boats bound for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia economic migrants from Bangladesh and members of the oppressed Rohingya fleeing Burma.
This people movement has brought a focus to the situation of the Rohingya, but their plight is not a recent event, the reality is that the tragedy of the Rohingya has been going on for years and years. Australia has been assisting the region meet the challenge of irregular people movement and will continue to be part of regional efforts to manage refugee flows and counter people
Australia consistently raises our concerns with the Burmese Government about the situation in Rakhine State, including the situation for the Rohingya focusing on ensuring a secure and stable environment in Rakhine State for all communities.
Australia is one of the largest bilateral humanitarian donors in Burma’s Rakhine State and provides long term development assistance to increase the economic opportunities there.We have been one of the most generous resettlement countries of refugees from Burma.
More widely Australia co-chairs the Bali Process which enables countries to work together on tackling people smuggling and human trafficking. Australia is also the largest financial contributor to the Bali Process Regional Support Office.
We are by far the largest source of funding for the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) activities in Indonesia — meeting the costs of around half the refugee population there.
Under a program called the Regional Cooperation Arrangements (RCA) which began in 2000 Australia has committed more than $170 million in funding including almost $42 million this year.
IOM uses those funds to provide food, accommodation, medical assistance and other services to the victims of people trafficking and people smuggling in Indonesia.
We are a leader in the region in efforts to counter people trafficking and will spend $50 million over five years on a regional program to foil this transnational crime.
Added to this Australia remains one of the most generous countries in the world when it comes to refugees running the third largest refugee resettlement program globally which includes taking refugees from camps in regional countries including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.The 50,000 people who flooded into Australia illegally under the previous Labor Government
was one of the largest per capita arrival rates in the region and it will take years for Australia to deal with these people.Now that we have stopped those illegal arrivals, we can reinstate our regular Refugee and Humanitarian program.
This year we will resettle 13,750 people from around the world and over the next few years that will increase to 18,750.As a nation we have a lot to be proud of in the numbers of displaced people we take in and in the support we provide to other nations and to regional and global efforts to assist genuine refugees.
