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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.
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