Afghan Community Support

On 29 March 2022 the Australian Government announced 16,500 places for Afghan nationals under the Humanitarian Program, which will be delivered over the next four years in addition to the annual Humanitarian Program intake.

This is in addition to the 10,000 places for Afghan nationals within the offshore Humanitarian Program, announced on 21 January 2022. This brings the total number of places available to Afghan nationals to 31,500.

This comprises 26,500 places under the Humanitarian Program and at least 5,000 places under the Family stream of the Migration Program.

Australian Federal Government Support

 

The Australian Government is committed to working with partners to support the Afghan people. Since 2001, Australia has provided over $1.6 billion in development and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. In doing so, we have helped support meaningful gains in the lives of Afghans, including in the form of dramatic improvements in women’s education, health and participation, and in preventing violence against women.

On 31 March, Australia committed an additional $40 million to the UN Humanitarian Response Plan, to be disbursed in 2022. The appeal raised approximately USD2.4 billion.

This builds on Minister Payne’s 13 September 2021 announcement of $100 million in humanitarian assistance to respond to the Afghanistan crisis from 2021 to 2024, with a specific focus on supporting women and girls. This includes:

  • around $45 million from the existing bilateral aid program to meet immediate humanitarian needs in Afghanistan

  • $20 million to support neighbouring countries hosting Afghan refugees, and mitigate possible irregular migration impacts and people smuggling

    • including $5 million to the UN Refugee Agency Supplementary Appeal, announced on 20 August

  • around $35 million from the bilateral aid program, from 2022 to 2024, to respond to the protracted nature of the crisis, including to provide basic health services, food and shelter.

Australia is working with three UN agencies in Afghanistan – the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Population Fund – to deliver humanitarian assistance, while also ensuring compliance with relevant sanctions obligations.

Australia’s humanitarian assistance and other programs are implemented in accordance with UNSC sanctions and do not benefit the Taliban directly.

Support for displaced persons

 

The Government has announced $27.1 million (New settlement support package for recent arrivals from Afghanistan) for a Settlement Support Package for Afghans. This provides direct funding to cater for the specific needs of the Afghan evacuee cohort.

The package comprises funding for four specific measures:

  • $8.4 million to support grassroots community organisations

    • This will provide additional funding to Afghan Australian and other community organisations. This is to deliver community based settlement support services to newly arrived Afghans.

  • $6.4 million to fund increased legal assistance. This will support transition from temporary to permanent visas

    • This funding will boost the capacity of specialist community refugee and immigration legal service providers. It will support evacuees to transition from emergency, temporary visas onto permanent visas.

  • $4.8 million to support economic participation

    • This funding will:

      • support new arrivals with employment coaching and mentoring. It will help them use their skills and experience to gain employment, and

      • help Afghans quickly navigate skills recognition and education pathways to secure employment opportunities.

  • $7.9 million for increased capacity for mental health support providers

    • This funding will increase the capacity of specialist service providers through the Program of Assistance for Survivors of Torture and Trauma. It will provide priority delivery of torture and trauma counselling to Afghan evacuees.

In addition to class XB visa holders, we will offer all subclass 449 visa holders in the Afghan evacuee cohort access to settlement support. This will be through the Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP).

This cohort is also eligible for certain payments and concession cards.

Medicare

How to enrol

Enrol in Medicare by following these steps:

  1. complete a Medicare enrolment form

  2. send your form and supporting documents to Medicare. You can post them to the address on the form or email them to Medicare Enrolment Services.

If you’re enrolling as a family, you’ll need to nominate a contact person for your Medicare card. We’ll send Medicare cards and other general information for everyone listed on the card to the contact person.

If you’re the only person listed on the Medicare card, you’ll be the contact person for the card.

Enrolling your newborn baby

You can enrol your newborn baby by using the Newborn Child Declaration. You’ll get the declaration from the hospital. Find out how to enrol your baby.

If you’ve adopted a child or your child was born overseas, you’ll need to give us extra documents. Read more about what to do:

If your child was born overseas:

-          you can’t enrol them online.

If you’ve been overseas less than 5 years, fill out a Medicare enrolment form for your child. You’ll also need to provide all of these documents:

  • your child’s foreign passport

  • your child’s Australian citizenship certificate

  • your child’s birth certificate.

You don’t need to get your documents certified.

When you’re applying for permanent residency

If your child was born overseas after you applied for permanent residency, you’ll need to apply for their permanent residency too. After this you can enrol them in Medicare.

Fill out a Medicare enrolment form for your child. You’ll need to provide all of these documents:

  • your child’s passport

  • your child’s visa

  • your child’s proof of application for permanent residency

  • your child’s birth certificate.

Send your forms and documents to Medicare by mail or email to Medicare Enrolment Services.

 

 

Centrelink

Payments

As a refugee or humanitarian entrant, income support payments you may be able to get include:

You may also be eligible for other payments:

  • Crisis Payment is a one-off payment for humanitarian entrants arriving in Australia for the first time.

  • Special Benefit is a payment if you’re in severe financial need and can’t get another payment from us.

  • Rent Assistance is extra help if you pay rent and get certain payments from us.

Family payments and services

You may be able to get payments to help you with the costs of raising your family:

Read about other help you may get with your child's education and health care.