Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the Government will increase the number of refugees it accepts from Syria
- 9 HOURS AGO SEPTEMBER 07, 2015
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is sending his immigration minister to Geneva to talk to the UN’s refugee agency on what more Australia can do to help with the growing crisis in Syria.
“We are disposed to take more people from that troubled region under our refugee humanitarian program and we are open to providing more financial assistance,” the Prime Minister told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will fly to Geneva on Sunday evening.
Mr Abbott said the Goverment will take more Syrian refugees, as part of its already “generous” allocation of humanitarian visas.
He also stressed numerous times that Australia takes in more refugees per capita than any other nation in the world.
Mr Abbott said the scale of the dislocation of people in Syria and northern Iraq and the unfolding crisis in the Mediterranean requires further international response.
“Our focus will be on families and women and children, especially of persecuted minorities, who have sought refuge in camps neighbouring Syria and Iraq,” Mr Abbott said.
He said as a result of the government’s success in stopping illegal boat arrivals to Australia, it is now in a position to take more refugees from offshore refugee camps.
“The government is also considering further funding for humanitarian assistance to those seeking refuge in refugee camps,” he said.
Police direct migrants as they wait to be registered by the police at the Lesbos Port on September 4, 2015. Source: AFP
This will add to the $155 million already provided in response to the Syria crisis since 2011.
Last financial year Australia settled more than 4400 people from Syria and Iraq, accounting for 30 per cent of the 13,750 places under the Humanitarian Programme, he said.
The announcement comes as a second senior minister has called for Australia to take more refugees from Syria as the federal government considers how it can help with the international crisis.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb says Australia has a long history of giving safe haven to refugees and should allocate more places for those from Syria and Iraq as the conflict in the Middle East intensifies.
“I would suspect that given the circumstances, we’ll look very favourably at that,” Mr Robb told ABC TV on Sunday.
“And we should.”
His comments follow similar calls from deputy Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, coalition backbenchers Craig Laundy and Russell Broadbent, and NSW Premier Mike Baird.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the Abbott government’s efforts to stop the people-smuggling trade means it has more flexibility within the humanitarian program to take more people in urgent need.
“A number of members of parliament in the coalition have suggested that we could increase the intake and of course they may well have resources available in their electorates that we could draw upon,” she told the Seven Network.
Cash-strapped Greece, which has just accepted a huge third international bailout, has seen more than 230,000 people land on its shores this year, many of them Syrian refugees. Source: AFP
She’s had long conversations in recent days with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton about the best way Australia can help.
Possible options Australia is discussing with allies include giving more resources to refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey; European and Middle East countries taking in more refugees; establishing safe havens in Syria or along the border and increasing aid.
“It is an international crisis and Australia will play its part,” Ms Bishop said.
Labor says Australia should respond promptly to any requests from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Frontbencher Mark Butler criticised cuts to Australia’s funding for the UNHCR.
The previous Labor government responded to UNHCR requests and advice to take more refugees from particular regions under significant pressure, he told Sky News.
Labor resolved at its July national conference to double Australia’s refugee intake to 27,000 by 2025.
That would give “very substantial headroom” to be able to assist Syrian refugees, Mr Butler said.
The Greens want to see an emergency intake of 20,000 Syrian refugees registered with the UNHCR.
“If the prime minister has a skerrick of decency and compassion he would do what his predecessors have down, show some leadership and recognise that Australia needs to play its part in the world,” leader Richard Di Natale told Sky News.
“We can’t continue with this isolationist, turn our back on the problems of the world approach that this prime minister brings to the office.”
A Syrian child fleeing the war is lifted over border fences to enter Turkish territory illegally, near the Turkish border crossing at Akcakale in Sanliurfa province on June 14, 2015. Source: AFP
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