The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has vowed to uphold Australia’s tough border protection policies, saying his “confronting” visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan has reinforced his belief in the government’s hardline policies.
Dutton toured the world’s second-largest refugee camp, Zaatari, on Monday, and gave credit to the country for opening their arms to more than 600,000 Syrian refugees.
But he said the trip only reinforced the federal government’s policy of turning back boats, saying it allowed Australia to increase its humanitarian intake from offshore.
“The lesson of today reinforces that we have made the right decision.”
“The fact we have a tough border policy in Australia means that we can offer a helping hand,” he told the ABC.
Dutton said the scenes at Zaatari, home to more than 80,000 refugees, were “confronting, to say the least”.
“The scenes of children, innocent victims of war, really pull at your heartstrings.
“The fact that the Jordanians here on the border open their arms up not only to the refugees but also to those people who are seriously injured is a great credit to this country.”
UN officials briefed Dutton on its operations to care for Syrian refugees.
Agencies are perilously short of money: the World Food Program has cut in half its food aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees because of lack of funds.
The UN estimates it needs US$3.8bn a year to care for 4 million refugees seeking safety in the neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. So far they have received only half of the required money.
Australia spends $1bn – US$713m – a year on its offshore detention regime alone, and more than $3bn (US$2.15bn) on immigration detention more broadly, which houses 1,500 people.
Dutton was also briefed by the UNHCR on how Australia would decide which 12,000 Syrian refugees to resettle as part of its expanded humanitarian program.
He told Fairfax the chance to grant visas to four families – two from Syria and two from Iraq – was “one of the best days” of his time in the portfolio.
And Dutton said if the current expanded intake was a success, he would consider further extensions to the humanitarian program.
It is expected the first group of refugees selected from Middle East camps will arrive before Christmas.
But Labor has accused the federal government of a breach of faith by not doing enough to quickly bring Syrian refugees to Australia.
Responding to reports that only a small number of refugees would be in Australia by the end of the year, immigration spokesman Richard Marles criticised the government for dragging its feet.
“They said they would be doing this as soon as possible with significant numbers coming before Christmas,” Marles told reporters in the Marshall Islands.
“The fact that a negligible number would be here by the end of the year [is] a breach of faith.”
Labor believes the government was dragged kicking and screaming to offer 12,000 humanitarian spots over four years for refugees escaping the Syrian crisis.
Marles conceded security checks were necessary but said advanced biometric screening undertaken at the United Nations-run refugee camp in Jordan should make the process quicker.
“We’ve got an emergency going on in Syria,” he said.
“The notion that it’s going to take months and months to do that due diligence is simply wrong.”
