Community care and case resolution
Harriet Spinks
The 2009–10 Budget allocates $77.4 million over four years
for ‘key immigration compliance and detention policy
improvements in community care, status resolution and assisted
voluntary returns’.[1] The cost of this measure will be fully offset by savings
from within the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s
existing funding for detention operations and contract management.
The package provides funding for early intervention mechanisms and
active case management to assist in achieving a timely resolution
of people’s immigration status, as well as a program of
assisted voluntary returns for people who have no right to remain
in Australia and choose to return to their country of origin. These
programs are intended to allow for the management in the community
of people who have no right to remain in Australia, rather than
relying only on immigration detention.
The Government has claimed these measures comprise part of
a suite of changes it is making to the way immigration
detention is used and managed in Australia, a policy agenda
it has labelled ‘New Directions in Detention’.[2] However, the measures
which will be funded under this allocation are not entirely new.
They build on existing measures which were introduced under the
previous Government in an attempt to more quickly resolve
people’s immigration status and minimise both the likely risk
of a person being detained, and the length of time spent in
immigration detention.
The proposed Community Status Resolution Service and Assisted
Voluntary Return Service, which will be funded under this measure,
have developed from the Community Care Pilot, which was introduced
in May 2006, and the Community Status Resolution Trial, an
extension of arrangements under the Community Care Pilot which
commenced in July 2007. The Community Care Pilot focused on
providing immigration advice, information and counselling to
vulnerable clients, while also addressing their health and welfare
needs, to assist them in promptly reaching an immigration outcome
and resolving their immigration status. Services were provided
through the Australian Red Cross and the International Organization
for Migration (IOM). The Community Status Resolution Trial was
designed to complement the Community Care Pilot, providing
assistance to clients who did not have health and welfare
vulnerabilities who wished to depart Australia voluntarily. Clients
were referred to the IOM for immigration counselling, information,
and voluntary return services.[3]
While the measures being funded under this budget allocationwere
already being trialled, the funding represents a significant
increase in the budgetary commitment to these programs—in
both 2007–08 and 2008–09 the budget allocation for the
case management and community care pilot was just $5.6
million.[4]
[1].
C Evans (Minister for Immigration and Citizenship), New
directions in detention, media release, Canberra, 12 May 2009,
viewed 18 May 2009,
http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2009/ce01-budget-09.htm
[2].
See C Evans (Minister for Immigration and Citizenship), ‘New
directions in detention—restoring integrity to
Australia’s immigration system’, speech delivered at
the Australian National University, Canberra, 29 July 2008, viewed
18 May 2009, http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/speeches/2008/ce080729.htm
[3].
For more information on the Community Care Pilot and Community
Status Resolution Trial see Department of Immigration and
Citizenship (DIAC), Annual report 2007–08, DIAC,
Canberra, 2008, pp. 110–1.
[4].
Australian Government, Portfolio budget statements
2007–08: budget related paper no. 1.13: Immigration and
Citizenship Portfolio, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra,
2007, p. 27; and Australian Government, Portfolio budget
statements 2008–09: budget related paper no. 1.12:
Immigration and Citizenship Portfolio, Commonwealth of
Australia, Canberra, 2007, p. 20.