South Sudan, Somalia and Iran excluded from one of Australia's refugee programs



IDPS  PHOTO TAKEN IN PARIANG BY  EMMANUEL MALUAL MAKUACH DURING CONFLICT





















Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Bhutan, Syria and Iraq to be prioritized
















Humanitarian migrants from eight countries will be prioritized under one of Australia’s refugee resettlement programs, with other nationalities told their applications are highly unlikely to be accepted.
The Guardian understands the priority countries are: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Bhutan, Syria and Iraq. Nationals of several other specific countries that were previously considered for resettlement, such as South Sudan, Somalia and Iran, are now excluded and will not be able to access the program. The move has been condemned by some community leaders as “clear discrimination”.
The resettlement scheme, known as the Community Support Program, is one element of Australia’s broader humanitarian program, which, this year, offers up to 1,000 places, taken from within the broader program of 16,250 places.

 Australia’s scheme is much more expensive – to sponsor an individual refugee costs about $48,000, a family of five about $100,000 – and, for every humanitarian migrant privately sponsored, and the government resettles one fewer under its program.
This “offset” has led to criticism of the scheme as the government abrogating its commitment to resettle refugees, instead outsourcing resettlement to private individuals or community groups.
Late last year, Amir Taghinia, an Iranian refugee held within Australia’s regional processing centre on Manus Island, was privately sponsored by a Canadian family and their community to resettle in British Columbia.
Paul Power from the Refugee Council of Australia said Australia’s private sponsorship scheme was “the most expensive in the world” and that the government was “using desperate refugee families to fund its commitment that it made to resettle refugees”.
“It’s very hard to understand the rationale for prioritizing certain groups of refugees over others: why Eritreans in Ethiopia would be eligible, but in Sudan they would not be.”
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