Australia all set to accept 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq
This batch of refugees is in addition to the 13,750 individuals that Australia resettles every year.
Australia has come close to resettling all of the 12,000 refugees from Iraq and Syria it promised to take over a year ago.
Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement that all 12,000 refugees have been granted visas and over 10,000 of them have been brought in to Australia from refugee camps. He added that the remaining migrants will be resettled in the coming months, according to the Associated Press news agency.
This batch of refugees is in addition to the 13,750 individuals that Australia accepts every year.
In September 2015, former prime minister Tony Abbott said that this batch of refugees would be settled as soon as possible.
In September, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Leaders Summit on Refugees that the country would increase its annual intake of refugees by 5,000, which will raise the overall number to 18,750.
Conservative legislators in Australia had asked the cabinet to rethink the numbers as the threat of terrorists among the refugees could be an issue.
During former president Barack Obama's tenure, Australia made a deal with the US to resettle refugees from Central American countries from a camp in Costa Rica. Obama in turn agreed to resettle 1,250 refugees rejected by Australia as they tried to come into the country by boat.
Donald Trump slammed the deal saying that it was a "dumb deal", but said that he would honour the agreement.
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