More visas have been promised for Afghan nationals fleeing the Taliban, to commit to places beyond the existing humanitarian cap.
The will fund an additional 16,500 places offered to Afghan nationals over the next four years at a cost of $665.9 million.
The commitment comes as the humanitarian cap is maintained at 13,750 on humanitarian visas.
Refugee Council of Australia CEO Paul Power has welcomed the pledge, which he said would also allow more places to go to other refugees in need.
“It is going to make a very substantial difference to Australia’s capacity to go and provide safety and hope for people affected by the conflict in Afghanistan,” he told SBS News.
“The additional places will also provide more space within the remainder of the program.”
The total number of places available to Afghans across the government's Humanitarian and Migration Program has now risen to 31,500 over four years.
The commitment builds on 10,000 humanitarian places announced in January, as well as 5,000 visas within the family stream.
Twin had recently renewed calls for the government to increase the generosity of its humanitarian pledge.
Criticism has also been levelled at the government over the slow pace of approving humanitarian visas from Afghanistan, with concerns over the safety of those left behind with connections to Australia.
The Department of Home Affairs has been inundated with more than 145,000 applications from people from Afghanistan seeking Australia’s protection.
Shabnam Safa, chair of the National Refugee-led Advisory and Advocacy Group, also welcomed the decision to allocate more visas.
“[The] announcement is welcome and has been long-awaited in our community amidst the excruciating pain and distress of the last seven months," she said.
The federal government has said the visas would be focused on former locally engaged employees and their immediate families.
It will also give priority access to women and girls, as well as ethnic minorities and those from LGBTIQ+ groups at risk of persecution.
Mr Power said the decision to expand places would also help “partly reverse” cuts made to the program under the Coalition.
“In some ways, the government is restoring the places that’s been taken away,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also seen a slowing of humanitarian visas granted by the Australian government with 5,947 approved in 2020-21 and 4,666 as of January 2021-22.
In 2020, the Morrison government reduced the maximum number of visas available under Australia’s refugee and humanitarian program from 18,750 down to 13,750.
The pledges come as net overseas migration to Australia is estimated to reach 180,000 this financial year in the wake of being rocked by the COVID-19 international border closure.
This compares to pre-pandemic levels of 190,000 people.
Economist Gabriela D’Souza of the Centre for Economic Development said the nation's economic recovery would continue to rely on the return of migration levels.
"We’ve seen a lot of big spending in this budget – we’ve seen infrastructure spend increase – we’ve seen cybersecurity spend increase," she told SBS News.
"A lot of that is predicated on having the skills here to be able to do those jobs."
Under the budget, the Skill stream is set to increase to 109,900, more than 30,000 places above 2021-22 planning levels.
