Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced that Australia will increase proportional intake of Syrian refugees in the coming year.
Abbott has not yet confirmed the number of people who will be accepted from that region.
“I’m not going to put a number on it now,” Abbott told journalists, but Australia is “prepared to take significant numbers [of Syrian refugees] this year.” But he also made clear that Australia would not be increasing it’s overall intake – just the proportion that comes from Syria.
“We can only do this because of the success we’ve already had in stopping the boats,” he continued.
“We are in a position to take more Syrians because of that success.”
Abbott has further announced that Peter Dutton will travel to Geneva to ask the United Nations what more Australia can do to assist the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
Australia will also increase its financial contribution to the UNHCR.
“Australia takes more refugees through the UNHCR than any other country on a per capita basis,” Prime Minister Abbott said.
“We are prepared to take more people from camps, women and children, persecuted minorities.”
Top Comments
Yes the persecuted Christians in the Middle East are stuck in no mans land. These people desperately need our help.
Why would "stopping the boats" (which I doubt, incidentally) make any difference to how many refugees we can take in from Syria, specifically? Shouldn't we be able to increase our overall intake, seeing we supposedly have fewer people coming in by boat? That comment by Abbott makes no sense at all to me.
Anyway, I would be happy if Abbott was increasing the overall intake of refugees but I'm not impressed by this announcement in the slightest. All this means is that more will come from Syria and fewer will be able to come from other places in the world. Syria is not the only place in the world where people are at great peril right now - it's just the one getting the most attention at the moment.