31,614
35,000
why take action
Children are drowning and the human tide of refugees continues to flow into Europe. At a time of overwhelming need, Australia can and should do more to help refugees and asylum seekers.
Last year, the announcement of 12,000 new refugee places for people from Syria and Iraq showed that Australia has the capacity to process more people in a year. But despite the ongoing need and worsening violence, this figure is scheduled to drop back to less than 17,000 places.
We are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis: there are more people displaced in the world today than ever in recorded history. And the average time spent in a refugee camp is 17 years.
Every day, tens of thousands of people flee their homes to avoid human rights abuses such as torture, persecution, armed conflict, extreme poverty and even death. Many risk – and lose - their lives trying to find safety.
Increasing the number of refugees we accept is the right thing to do, but it is only one of many steps Australia can take to help protect refugees. Australia continues to have one of the harshest refugee and asylum seeker policies in the world, which includes towing boats back to sea, keeping people in detention offshore without the possibility of gaining asylum, returning people at risk of further human rights abuse, and even rewriting the law to remove international protections.
This needs to change. Tell Prime Minister Turnbull you support Australia doing more to help refugees and asylum seekers.