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« on: November 14, 2009, 02:22:25 pm » |
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Since September last year, 39 boats carrying asylum seekers have been intercepted taking a perilious journey to Australia.
However, just a portion of the 13,507 refugee visas granted in 2008-09 were granted to boat people â?? most refugees come through Australia's offshore humanitarian program.
Refugee Council of Australia chief executive Paul Power said there were difficulties for refugees finding work in Australia, at least in the short term, resulting in many needing assistance to survive.
While many were actually qualified for jobs, they had difficulties getting Australian employers to recognise their foriegn university study or their work experience.
"There needs to be an understanding that there are costs with refugee and humanitarian programs as people get resettled,'' he said.
"They also need employers ready to give them a go."
He added that studies had shown that refugees tend to have repaid all their costs within 17 years and cited several of the wealthiest businessmen in Australia, including Frank Lowy and Harry Triguboff, who were once refugees.
The relevant visa categories are Refugee and Humanitarian (Class XB), Resolution of Status and Permanent Protection Visas.
There were 13,507 refugee visas granted in 2008-09 under the three main categories.
Since 1990, about 190,000 refugee visas have been granted.
An Immigration Department spokesman said that just 3 per cent of those in reciept of a Newstart Allowance as at June 30, 2009 were refugees, while only about 3.5 per cent of Youth Allowance payment were refugees.
There were 52,469 refugee visa holders on Centrelink benefits as at June 30, 2009:
21,422 were on Newstart 13,582 were on the Youth Allowance 9881 were on the Disability Support Pension 5488 were on the aged pension 2096 were on Austudy There were also 4324 Baby Bonus payments
There were 40,151 refugee visa holders on Centrelink benefits as at June 30, 2007:
15,750 were on Newstart 11,142 were on Youth Allowance 7350 were on Disability Support Pension 4410 were on Aged Pension 1499 were on Austudy There were also 2796 Baby Bonus payments
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/877598/refugee s-spark-huge-jump-in-welfare-bill
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