Australia accused of dragging feet on Syria refugee intake
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SYDNEY - Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday rejected charges his country was dragging its feet in resettling refugees from Syria and Iraq, having resettled just 26 in the same time it took Canada to process 26,000.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott last September pledged to accept 12,000 refugees from Syria on top of Australia's current humanitarian intake program of 13,750 people.
Dutton said the pace of resettlements was determined on national security grounds. Border security is a hot-button political issue in Australia, which is scheduled to hold a national election later in the year.
"The Australian public demands that the government does everything possible to make sure that first and foremost our national security is protected and secondly to make sure that we're bringing the right people into our country so that they can start a new life," he told reporters in Washington.
