<P> The annual refugee quota is currently 20,000 people . According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Australia was ranked 47th out of 198 countries in the world in terms of the number of refugees hosted between 2005 and 2009, out of those countries who host refugees . In 2012, the Refugee Council of Australia ranked Australia 22nd on a per capita basis in a list of countries that accept refugees . The Council found that in terms of resettlement (as opposed to "receiving") asylum seekers, Australia ranks 2nd in the world overall, 3rd per capita and 3rd as a proportion of GDP . </P> <P> Australia's total refugee and humanitarian intake has remained relatively constant since the mid-1980s: </P> <P> The rate of arrivals by boat, the most controversial aspect of Australia's refugee policy, has been exceptionally volatile . It reached a peak of 20,587 people in 2013 (excluding crew), before falling again to zero two years later: </P> <P> In the 1930s more than 7,000 refugees from Nazi Germany were accepted into Australia . In the eight years after the end of World War II almost 200,000 European refugees settled in Australia . Australia was reluctant to recognise a general "right of asylum" for refugees when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being drafted . The White Australia policy was responsible for the exclusion of Asians from migration to Australia until 1973 . </P>

What is australia’s current procedure for asylum seekers