The federal government has been blocking United Nations-approved refugees from its resettlement waiting list for the past nine months, according to a high level source.
The government instigated a pause on accepting new referrals from the UN's refugee agency from October last year, and which was due to be lifted on January 31, according to documents obtained by AAP under freedom of information laws.
But now a high level source familiar with the matter has told AAP the suspension actually remained in place until June 30 and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is still awaiting official confirmation that the decision's been reversed.
Former immigration minister Scott Morrison initiated the referral ban, which wasn't publicly revealed.
"While the decision has been communicated to UNHCR headquarters, the minister has asked expressly that it not be made public and as a result should be treated with appropriate sensitivity," an immigration department official wrote in an email when the pause was put in place.
Mr Morrison announced last November Australia would not take any more asylum seekers who had applied for resettlement through the UNHCR office in Indonesia after July 1, 2014.
At the time he said the processing ban didn't extend to UNHCR applicants in other countries.
According to a department talking points document, a pause on adding to the offshore humanitarian program waiting list was necessary because it was already under significant pressure with 75,000 unfinalised applications - including from 50,000 people with relatives in Australia seeking family reunions.
Recent violence in Iraq and Syria had led to high demand and there had also been an increase from Burmese and African applicants, the department said. Australia resettled a total of 13,750 refugees in 2014.
Comment is being sought from now Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and the UNHCR.
Share
