Australia Boosts Refugee Intake, Extends Air Strikes to Syria
Local Editor
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday bowed to pressure to increase refugee numbers in the face of the Middle East crisis and confirmed Canberra will also join US-led air strikes on the "ISIL" group in Syria.
With his hardline against asylum-seekers under intense scrutiny given the drama unfolding in Europe, Abbott said the government was acting "with our head as well as with our heart" to help the thousands of migrants fleeing the conflict.
"All of us were shocked as a nation at the disaster that we saw on our television screens," said Abbott, whose own Liberal Party members had called on him to take more refugees after the image of drowned boy Aylan Kurdi resonated around the world.
"And all of us as a nation wanted to help."
Abbott said it was obvious that many Syrians would never be able to return to their homes as he announced Australia would take an additional 12,000 refugees from the Syria-Iraq conflict.
"This is an important and generous act by Australia," he told parliament of the one-off measure he said would begin as soon as possible.
In parallel, he mentioned: "I stress that we are taking people who are persecuted minorities. We are determined to prioritize women, children and families on the borders of Syria in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan."
The government will also pay to support more than 240,000 displaced people in countries neighboring Syria and Iraq, funding food, water, healthcare, and other supplies, at an expected cost of Aus$44 million.
The prime minister said both the humanitarian response and the stepping up of military measures against the "ISIL" group into Syria were in the national interest.
Australia, which is already part of the coalition fighting "ISIL" in Iraq, said the legal basis for extending air operations into Syria was the collective self-defense of Iraq as the group did not respect state borders.
"Destroying this death cult is essential, not just to ending the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East but also to ending the threat to Australia and the wider world," Abbott said.
Australia raised its terror threat to high one year ago and officials have long been concerned about nationals travelling to fight alongside "ISIL" or attempting attacks on home soil.
"We cannot defeat Daesh in Iraq without defeating Daesh in Syria too," Abbott said, using the Arabic acronym for the violent terrorists who control swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
But the focus of the campaign would be on "ISIL", he added.
Amnesty International also welcomed the extra refugee places but noted that the few Syrians who had made it to Australia so far had been languishing for two years in a detention center in Papua New Guinea.
Australia's decision to expand military operations follows France's announcement Monday that it would begin surveillance flights over Syria to lay the groundwork for striking "ISIL"targets.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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