AUSTRALIA will welcome 12,000 refugees from Syria with a promise of permanent resettlement, a government source says.
Liberal and National MPs have agreed on the figure in a special meeting of the Federal Government party room this morning.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is expected to formally announce the decision at lunchtime.
The 12,000 refugees will come on top of Australia’s existing 13,750 humanitarian intake and will come from “persecuted minorities” fleeing the Syrian conflict, who have already registered with the UN refugee agency.
Mr Abbott is also expected to announce $44 million in funding for the UNHCR.
The Abbott Government’s national security committee met last night.
After initially refusing to increase Australia’s annual refugee quota from about 13,000, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton flew to Geneva earlier this week to seek advice on how Australia could increase our humanitarian effort.
Mr Dutton told Fairfax it would be a “generous announcement, both in terms of the dollar amount and the number of places that we’ll be able to provide”.
“I think people will be impressed with Australia’s response,” he said.
“I think people will see it as a generous offering on behalf of the Australian public. And I think people will be proud of what the government’s proposing.”
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he would be pleased if Mr Abbott hears the call of the public, his own coalition MPs and Labor by agreeing to a one-off intake, but said Australians needed to recognise the conflict would go on for some time, he told reporters in Canberra.
“We need to make sure that if we’re going to do the job of taking in refugees, let’s do it right … the first time.”
He said it was wrong to talk about more refugees causing job losses.
“It’s very important that Mr Abbott rein in some of his MPs on the far right who saying that somehow taking more refugees will cost Australian jobs,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“We need to stamp out that sort of ridiculous rubbish and call it for what it is.”
Mr Shorten also said Labor wanted to be assured that Australia’s military intervention in Syria would be both effective and legal.