Prime Minister Scott Morrison has faced backlash after suggesting his government's visa response for Ukrainians could mirror the approach to those fleeing Afghanistan by "supplementing" the existing migration program.
Mr Morrison on Tuesday said the federal government is considering a Kosovar-style pathway for Ukrainian citizens seeking to flee Russia's invasion.
The comments were a reference to temporary safe haven visas offered to Kosovars fleeing the Kosovo-Serbia conflict in the late 1990s.
"If that requires supplementing our existing program like with the Afghanistan program we are currently working on, we will," he told reporters in Canberra.
But Mr Morrison's comments have been criticised for misrepresenting his government's response to people from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban, which did not offer additional places outside of the existing cap of the humanitarian program.
A government spokesperson told SBS News Mr Morrison did not mean to imply this, instead that the Ukrainian response would retain the right to offer additional places above the existing cap.
They said this same prospect remained on the table for the Afghanistan program, with the response described as a "floor and not a ceiling".
Advocacy groups are campaigning for the Australian government to offer visas to those fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan on top of of the nation's annual allowance of 13,750 humanitarian visas.
Australia has committed to taking in 10,000 refugees from Afghanistan over the next four years within the humanitarian program and another 5,000 places in the family visa program.
Tim Costello, executive director of Micah Australia - a coalition of Christian organisations - said the twin crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine demanded Australia's humanitarian visa program be expanded and both visa commitments be offered outside the existing cap.
"Talk and spin and saying we're generous and not actually increasing the places for Afghans and Ukrainians is simply not good enough," he told SBS News.
The Department of Home Affairs has been inundated with more than 145,000 applications for humanitarian visas from people fleeing Afghanistan alone.
A Senate estimates hearing in February revealed only around 1,000 refugee visas had been granted to people escaping Afghanistan, since an offer of 3,000 humanitarian places was initially made in August last year.
Shabnam Safa, a former refugee from Afghanistan and member of the Afghanistan-Australian Advocacy Network, said the slow progress of the response showed the desperate need for visa allocations to be made in addition to the existing humanitarian cap.
"Without the additional intake, the waiting period would be extraordinary for people from Afghanistan," she told SBS News.
“There is no way what the government has in place will meet the demand for protection.
"Now on top of that the crisis from Ukraine is going to put so much more pressure on the program."
The United Nations has said nearly 700,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries since the start of Russia's invasion.
The Australian government has fast-tracked around 430 visa applications across various pathways from Ukrainian nationals with all "outstanding applications"processed.
But Mr Morrison has indicated the government is now receiving 100 applications a day, with these visas requests "being processed as a top priority”.
“We are preparing options to support the broader humanitarian effort to have programs like we had for the Kosovar some years ago,” he said.
“We shouldn't make the mistake to think every person who is seeking to leave Ukraine doesn't want to return to their home country.”
The government has said these unique challenges mean the response being considered is different to the long-term resettlement demands of Afghan nationals.
Former deputy secretary of the Immigration Department Abul Rizvi - who worked on the previous Kosovar program - said at the time, the places were designed to be temporary and were offered in addition to the standard humanitarian program.
“Using a Kosovar-style response now appears likely - that’s based on the assumption - that the Ukraine situation will be short term,” he told SBS News.
“I suspect Australia would have to fly in immigration officers throughout the world into probably Warsaw [Poland’s capital] to manage all of this.”
He said challenges for department officials would include working out who to prioritise for places, difficulties certifying identification from refugees and providing resettlement support back in Australia, including accommodation and living requirements.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Monday also called on the federal government to offer places to Ukrainian refugees in addition to the yearly cap.
“I would ask that any arrivals from Ukraine as a result of this conflict be treated as additional to the current Commonwealth humanitarian and refugee intake,” he said in a statement.
The Australian government cut its annual Refugee and Humanitarian Program in 2020 by 5,000 places to the current cap of 13,750 places.
It has said the figure reflects the global impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
