The latest annual report from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) reveals that Australia issued 9236 offshore refugee and humanitarian visas and 4534 onshore protection and humanitarian visas in the 2009-10 financial year. The top countries of origin for offshore visas were Burma 1959, Iraq 1688, Bhutan 1144, Afghanistan 951, Congo (DRC) 584, Ethiopia 392, Somalia 317, Sudan 298, Liberia 258, Sierra Leone 237.

For onshore protection visas, the main countries of citizenship were Afghanistan 1514, Sri Lanka 505, China 492, Iraq 321, Iran 282, Zimbabwe 255, Pakistan 218, Stateless 192, Egypt 79, Burma 78. RCOA has produced a summary of the main statistics related to refugees and asylum seekers, including information about immigration detention, boat arrivals, ministerial intervention, support and assistance to asylum seekers and settlement support to refugees. This summary is at available here.  The full DIAC annual report can be found here.

Source: RCOA Newsletter