Australia rejects 500 Syrian refugees on security grounds
CANBERRA - Australia rejected 500 Syrian refugees on security grounds during more than a year of vetting while accepting 12,000 eligible for resettlement from Middle Eastern camps, an official said Thursday.
Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said the deadly rampage near Britain's Parliament on Wednesday, in which a man used a knife and car as weapons to kill four people, showed Australia was right to be cautious on who it accepted.
"The tragic events in London and elsewhere demonstrate the government's approach was prudent and there are people that we'd excluded on national security grounds and people that we do have concerns about that we have not brought to our country and we never will," Dutton told reporters.
