Julie Bishop: Cabinet will discuss accommodation of Syrian refugees

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that the cabinet is preparing to discuss the possibility of increasing the intake of refugee by Australia. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, on the other hand, has submitted an initial report of his talks with the United Nations officials in Paris and has set off for Geneva for further discussions with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and International Organisation for Migration.

The mounting pressure on the European nations as a huge number of migrants from Syria, Iraq and other nations and the plight of the refugees as highlighted by the media has led leaders and aid groups in Australia to ask for increasing the number of refugee intake by the country. While the Labor is pitching for at least 10,000 extra refugee intake by Australia, aid groups suggest it should not be less than 30,000.

Bishop said no decision can be made until Dutton provides any further information on the subject. She also said that she spoke to her counterparts from the Gulf and the Middle Eastern countries. However, she has assured that those fleeing their homes to avoid violence would be provided both permanent accommodation as well as temporary housing, in the similar manner during the Kosovo crisis. On Monday, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg suggested to the parliament not to allow refugees to apply for permanent asylum.

“We will be part of an international response to this unfolding crisis,” she said.

Australia has joined an international effort to resolve the crisis ensuing in Syria by bringing down the Islamic state militants attacking the civilians in the country. “It will require a military as well as a political solution,” Ms Bishop said.

To accommodate refugees, it is also necessary for Australia to ensure education, health care, accommodation facilities and a range of other services for them on a domestic level.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten suggested that the government should consider adding extra 13,750 places under the humanitarian and refugee program and not replace other refugees for the Syrians.

“I say to the government, please don't be guilty of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing,” he told reporters in Canberra.

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