PM says he was moved by ‘horrific imagery’ of drowned boy but that he would not increase the overall number of refugees Australia had planned to take

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Australia is prepared to accept more refugees from Syria and Iraq but is unlikely to further increase its overall humanitarian intake, Tony Abbott has signalled.

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The prime minister said on Sunday he had been moved by “the horrific imagery of that little boy washed up on a beach in Turkey” and he would send the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, to Geneva for urgent talks with the UN refugee agency.

Abbott said the government had announced last year that it would take almost 4,500 people from the trouble spots of eastern Syria and northern Iraq, and was prepared to accept more people from the region in light of the “humanitarian disaster”.

The prime minister signalled that the government was looking at increasing the intake from Syria and Iraq as a share of its humanitarian program, rather than taking more people in addition to the existing program.

Abbott said the Coalition had previously announced it was “steadily increasing” Australia’s overall annual humanitarian intake from 13,750 places to 18,750 in 2018-19.

The former Labor government had committed to an intake of 20,000 a year in response to the Houston report.

“We are proposing to take more people from this region as part of our very substantial contribution to the UNHCR,” Abbott said in Canberra.

Abbott said Dutton would leave Australia on Sunday evening for the planned talks with the UNHCR. While he would not speculate on the details, Abbott indicated the government was “disposed to take more people from that troubled region” and was also “open to providing more financial assistance to the UNHCR”.

The announcement followed calls from two Liberal premiers and several federal ministers and backbenchers for the government to do more.

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, had also signalled his support for Australia to increase its intake and provide extra financial assistance to the UNHCR.

Shorten said it was time for Australia “to show leadership, decency and compassion in response to this crisis”.

“I welcome Tony Abbott’s belated recognition that Australia has a role to play here, but it’s not enough,” Shorten said.

“We must do better than this. Labor’s policy is to increase Australia’s refugee intake to 27,000. I want to ensure this includes more refugees from Syria.

“It’s disappointing that Tony Abbott has had to realise he is completely isolated on this issue – inside and outside his party – to do anything about it.”

The Greens called for the government to go much further and accept an emergency intake of 20,000 refugees fleeing the violence in Syria.

Abbott said the situation in the Middle East was “very grave”.

“Like just about every other Australian I was moved by the horrific imagery of that little boy washed up on a beach in Turkey – absolutely awful imagery and certainly no parent could fail to be moved by what we saw,” he said.

“Australia is a country which has always taken its international obligations seriously. Australia is a country which has always done what we can to assist when people are in trouble around the world and we certainly are not going to change our character now.”

Abbott said the government would be looking at accepting people from persecuted minorities in refugee camps.

The Coalition came to power in 2013 promoting a hardline “stop the boats” mantra and has implemented an operation to turn around asylum seeker vessels attempting to enter Australian waters.

Abbott said on Sunday that the Coalition’s success in implementing the policy allowed the government to accept refugees from a region in great stress “instead of just getting the people who the people smugglers sent to us in leaky boats”.

The government is also due to make a decision within a week on whether to join air strikes against Islamic State in Syria. Australia has conducted air strikes against the group, also known as Daesh, in Iraq since last year.

Abbott acknowledged the situation in Syria was grave. “People in Syria are caught between the mass executions of the Daesh death cult on the one hand and the chemical weapons of the Assad regime on the other,” he said.

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“It is important that there be a humanitarian response, but it’s also important that there be a strong security response as well and obviously the government will have more to say about that matter later in the week.”

Abbott rejected the idea of calling for a ceasefire. “I’m not sure that it’s possible to have a ceasefire with people like the death cult,” he said.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she had travelled to Geneva in July and met with the UNHCR “and it was clear that urgent action is needed”.

“The Greens are calling for an immediate intake of 20,000 Syrian refugees, over and above the current humanitarian quota, and a boost of funding to the UNHCR. Tony Abbott can do these things today,” Hanson-Young said.

“Unfortunately, Australia has not been leading the response to the Syrian crisis. While countries like Germany, Sweden and Austria have agreed to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees, until now Australia has been lagging behind. We are strong enough to offer people safety and we simply must do better.”

