The Wire

It’s Refugee Week, in which we are celebrating the acceptance of refugees in Australia, but it seems politicians from both sides of the government continue to paint a false picture of how many people are seeking asylum here. According to statistics released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees this week, the controversy over asylum seekers has little to do with the facts. In its analysis of global trends in 2009, it found that Australia’s share of asylum seeker applications does not make up even one per cent of the global total. The Wire’s Ryneisha Bollard followed this up with Kate Gauthier from the Refugee Council of Australia.