More women and their families who have fled persecution are being given visas to stay in Australia under the country's refugee programme, it has been revealed.
Australia's contribution of resettling almost 14,500 refugee women and their families over 25 years of the women at risk programme is being celebrated as part of Refugee Week 2014.
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, said Refugee Week, with its theme of 'Restoring Hop', was a fitting occasion to celebrate 's generous humanitarian programme.
'This government's successful border protection policies that are stopping the boats and preventing deaths at sea is resulting in a human dividend with a further 20,000 Special Humanitarian Programme places being made available, out to 2017/2018,' he said.
He pointed out that the programme aims to deliver 16,000 places over the budget estimates period with more than 4,000 in the current financial year.
'Australia continues to be one of the top three refugee resettlement countries, as well as being one of only a small number of countries that manage dedicated refugee settlement programmes for women at risk and their dependants,' he explained.