Kaldor Centre calls for new visa to protect people in humanitarian emergencies

The Australian government should streamline its humanitarian crisis response with a new, dedicated emergency visa, according to a new policy brief from the Evacuations Research Hub at UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

Authored by Professor Jane McAdam and Dr Regina Jefferies, ‘Ensuring Protection in Humanitarian Emergencies: A framework for Australia’ proposes the new visa as part of a holistic, more equitable response to crises. Encompassing both physical and legal protection, the emergency response framework proposed in the policy brief could be activated when sudden or large-scale crises arise around the world, and tailored to the specific context.

When crises threaten lives, the Australian government often steps up – but not always in a predictable, efficient, equitable and effective way, if responses to Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza are anything to go by. For some people escaping these conflicts, travel to Australia has been relatively easy; for others, impossible. Some people who reach Australia have rights to work, study, healthcare and support, while others are barely surviving.

Over time, Australia has issued at least 25 different visa types to assist people in humanitarian emergencies. The Kaldor Centre policy brief outlines them all and argues that it does not need to be this complicated.

While using different visas provides the government with flexibility, inconsistent approaches add to inefficiencies in an already complex and slow visa-processing system.

The authors instead propose an emergency visa enabling people at risk to travel to Australia quickly and safely. The visa would permit them to stay for at least 12 months, with a pathway to permanent stay if it is not safe or possible for them to return home at the end of that period. It would provide access to services, including Medicare and Centrelink, as well as work and study rights. People from the affected country who are already in Australia should be automatically granted a visa extension if their visa is due to expire, or a bridging visa with the same conditions.

As to who should be eligible for an emergency visa, sound principles from past Australian and comparative practices provide a guide. Classes of people could be identified as potentially eligible, as was done for Australia’s former Special Assistance Category (1991–2000). This provided resettlement opportunities to categories of people in vulnerable circumstances overseas with connections to Australia, including from the former Yugoslavia, the former USSR, East Timor, Lebanon, Sudan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, as well as Ahmadi Muslims.

The broader emergency response framework proposed by McAdam and Jefferies would build on existing frameworks with a more domestic focus.

It would integrate human rights considerations and ensure that the government is prepared across a range of portfolios to cut red tape and mobilise the resources required to support international arrivals.

While the policy brief focuses on Australia, its recommendations could be equally useful for other countries where emergency responses are ad hoc and hastily devised. The framework proposed by McAdam and Jefferies, with a dedicated emergency visa would be far more predictable, equitable, streamlined and efficient – for all concerned.

The policy brief was developed as part of the Kaldor Centre’s new Evacuations Research Hub, a five-year project established in July and funded by a prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship. Scientia Professor of Law and Laureate Fellow Jane McAdam AO is the Director of the Evacuations Research Hub, and Dr Jefferies is a Laureate Postdoctoral Fellow. The Hub’s research program analyses why and how evacuations are used; what legal standards govern their conduct; and when and how they come to an end.

Read and share the policy brief, ‘Ensuring Protection in Humanitarian Emergencies: A framework for Australia’. 

Watch, 'Speed briefing - Ensuring protection in humanitarian emergencies: A framework for Australia' or listen to the podcast.

For media interviews, contact Lauren Martin, lauren.martin@unsw.edu.au or 0407 393 070.

Explore more resources at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.