Calls to lift cap on humanitarian refugee intake amid deepening overseas crises

Currently the program offers fewer than 14,000 places per year, down on the 20,000 places offered prior to 2013.

Jasmina Bajraktarevic-Hayward, president of the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA), said under existing arrangements there was little prospect the federal government could adequately respond to either the unfolding disaster in Ukraine or the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.

Ms Bajraktarevic-Hayward said the government needed to increase the cap on humanitarian visas as well as offer a special additional intake of 20,000 visas to Afghan refugees, similar to that offered to refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict in 2015.

Of those limited humanitarian visas presently offered to Afghan refugees, none were additional to the existing quota.

"The government cannot meet the community's expectations while it restricts the refugee and humanitarian program to a maximum of 13,750 places per year," Ms Bajraktarevic-Hayward said.

"Without a significant increase in humanitarian visa places, the government leaves itself with few options to respond to the emerging needs of Ukrainian refugees [and] the 150,000 or more Afghans who have applied for resettlement in the past six months."

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It comes as the escalating conflict in Ukraine deepens, with more than 520,000 people having fled the country to the eastern edge of the European Union as of Monday evening (AEST).

This week the federal government indicated it would assist refugees from Ukraine by affording them priority access under all visa categories, such as humanitarian, student, family and skilled.

David MacPhail, president of Ballarat Rural Australians for Refugees, said while the government's flagged intention to assist Ukrainian refugees was to be welcomed, he was concerned a corresponding concern for refugees from Afghanistan was lacking.

"I endorse and congratulate the [federal] government on its quick response to Ukrainian refugees," Mr MacPhail said.

"Yet clearly there is a very considerable difference between what is being offered to people from Ukraine and what has been offered and delivered to people from Afghanistan, in whose country we were involved in a 20-year war."

To demonstrate an equivalence in approach between the two countries, Mr MacPhail said the government must at least grant permanent protection to all Afghan refugees currently residing in Australia.

"To be consistent with the government's concern for refugees in Ukraine, this must happen," he said.

"These people have been here so long and work so hard for their families - they are constantly re-traumatised by the desperate calls they get from their relatives in Afghanistan.

"People cannot move on and set up their lives if they haven't got permanent protection."

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