Refugee crisis has shook the world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leading refugee and migrant settlement agency AMES Australia has welcomed the federal government’s announcement that Australia will take an extra 12,000 refugees from Syria.

AMES Australia CEO Cath Scarth said Australia was well placed to accept the increased number of refugees.

“Australia has the infrastructure and capacity to welcome these people who are fleeing an extraordinarily deadly and viscous conflict,” Ms Scarth said.

“The current crisis in the Middle East and the refugee diaspora it has sparked is unprecedented since the end of World War II,” she said.

“It has become clear in recent days that there is broad community support for this move and AMES Australia stands ready to bring to bear its expertise and long experience in settling refugees to help this group of people find their feet and settle into our communities here in Australia.”

Premier Mike Baird has also welcomed and in response to the Commonwealth Government’s decision to allow a one-off intake of 12,000 Syrian refugees, he says:

“I am thrilled to hear that 12,000 Syrian refugees will soon be able to find safety on our shores, after the Prime Minister today announced a special increase on top of our normal annual refugee intake. I applaud this bold and generous decision.

What we’ve seen across our nation, and indeed the globe, over the past few days really does inspire hope in our humanity. When things seem to be at their very worst in the world, we often see the very best in people’s hearts.

Something is happening here in Australia. People have united behind the simple idea that our boundless plains are here to be shared, especially with those that are in desperate need.

There are now more displaced people in the world than at other time in recorded history. Half of Syria’s entire population is currently homeless.

We are eager do more than our fair share to assist the Commonwealth Government as they respond to this crisis. And I am certain that people right across NSW will welcome our new Syrian neighbours with open arms and open hearts.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prime Minister Abbott in his address to the parliament said, “we will take an additional 12,000 people from the Syria-Iraq conflict over and above our existing  refugee  and humanitarian programme.

This is an important and generous act by Australia.

I stress that we are taking people who are persecuted minorities.

We are determined to prioritise women, children and families on the borders of Syria in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

All of the people that we bring will be subject to the usual health, security and character checks. We will bring people as quickly as we can, but we do owe to it the Australian people to get these checks done and to bring people in in ways that resettlement services can cope.”

On the strikes in Syria Mr Abbott, said further,” As Members know, our armed forces have been engaged in military operations in Iraq for the best part of 12 months. In particular, the Royal Australian Air Force has been conducting air strikes against Daesh targets in Iraq.

At the invitation, at the request of President Obama, the Government has decided to extend our airstrikes to include Daesh targets in Syria as well.

We are doing this under Section 51 of the UN Charter which gives countries the right of collective self-defence.

Iraq is threatened by Daesh forces based and supplied from Syria and Syria is unable or unwilling to act against those forces. So, in conjunction with our coalition partners Australia will act.”

While Europe has opened its doors, rather Germany, its generous response by accepting nearly a million refugees, the US has accepted 1,500 Syrian refugees so far.

Its easy to declare wars but the pressure is now mounting on US as the International Rescue Committee called for the United States to open its doors to 65,000 Syrian refugees.An online petition asking the U.S. government to do exactly that has garnered more than 54,000 signatures.

And Britain after a lot of pressure has agreed to take in 20,000 refugees by the year 2020.

A  refugee has no religion as do bombs which do not differentiate between religions of people when dropped.

The image of Aylan Kurdi has clearly broken through and has affected deeply all Australians and their stance on Australian government’s refugee policy. They want the government to do more.

 

 

 

 

Short URL: https://indiandownunder.com.au/?p=5531