Peter Dutton offers visas to four refugee families, considers promoting the influx

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton offered the first refugee visas to four families out of 12,000 people being considered to resettle in Australia after his visit to one of the largest refugee camps of Zaatari in Jordan on Monday.

A day after he has been ranked “one of the best” immigration ministers of his time, Dutton presented the refugee visas to the families, allowing them to stay and work in Australia permanently as well as to apply for the nation’s citizenship someday.

“We are very excited about you coming to Australia,” the minister told them during the occasion. “We are very pleased that we will be able to welcome your family and we look forward to you starting your new life in Australia.”

Out of four, two are Sunni Muslim families who migrated from Homs in Syria, while the other two are Assyrian Christian families who fled from the IS-occupied city of Mosul in Iraq. The families wished to stay in Australia to join their relatives already living there.

The Australian government made an announcement in September, stating that it would allow 12,000 people from Syria and Iraq to join the 13,750 people already chosen by the United Nations for the temporarily expanded resettling program. Hence, a total of 25,750 refugees will be offered a chance to start fresh after their disastrous experience in the past. The rest of the refugees are expected to come to Australia within 18 months.

However, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, the visa count might decrease to 18,250 from 25,750 in 2018-19. Dutton claimed that the increased influx of refugees has been successful and he would be proposing to raise the number of intakes. Once the Australian public is satisfied that adding more 12,000 places for refugees is a good initiative and they see it as a reasonable program, the increase in the number of intakes would be easier.

“If people can relate to those stories, if they can see success in the program that we are rolling out now – then I do think there is the opportunity,” the immigration minister said.

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