Press Conference
E&OE
MINISTER PORTER: The reason I am with you today is to alert that the first family of Syrian refugees – that is, the additional intake of 12,000 – will be arriving in Perth inside the next 24 hours. Obviously, the first family of Syrian refugees to arrive is a matter of some policy and international significance and so the second purpose of today is to give you some information, necessarily limited information, about that family who will arrive in the next 24 hours and I would just note as a preliminary matter, notwithstanding the very natural interest to receive as much information as is reasonably possible about the refugee family that will be arriving, there is another concern and consideration here. That being the desire to make the initial days in Australia for this family as intense-free as we can conceivably make them. I have been informed that this family has been through quite a deal to arrive here in Australia and in the lead up in Syria before arriving in Australia. So I would just note that there is some extent to which time and space are going to be very valuable commodities for this family when they arrive. But, by way of information, the first family of the Syrian refugee cohort to arrive is a family of five – a mother and father and three children. They are originally from Homs in Syria. It is intended that Perth will be their permanent re-settlement location. They will be met at the airport by staff of the Commonwealth Government’s Humanitarian Re-Settlement Services and also by staff of the Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre, the MMRC. The MMRC will provide initial basic packages, both information packages and practical packages such as food and household items for this family from Syria. They will also be allocated an MMRC case worker. That case worker will ensure that there is intensive work with the family over the initial couple of days to settle on location options for accommodation both in the short, medium and potentially longer term. They will also go through the processes of registering the family with health services, other government services, language services, schools and the like. So, that is all occurring in the next 24 hours. That is essentially as much information as I can give you in terms of the actual individuals that comprise the family itself but obviously, a very significant event.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: Look, I don’t know the exact timing of their processing, save to say that their processing has been orderly, some would say slow, but very, very thorough and it has all the level of stringency that occurs for all humanitarian and refugee arrivals. And I will note that by way of some background information, the family has been through a great deal. They have spent very long periods of time in refugee camps as a result of the Syrian civil war and crisis so they have been through a lot and the process that we have applied to the family has of course come on the tail end of everything that they have been through and that is a fairly arduous and thorough process.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: No. Look, I am not going to go into any further detail about their personal circumstances and whether at some point in time, either soon or in the mid-term the family speaks to the media will be largely a matter for themselves and that is something that the people who speak with them, when they do arrive at the airport, will take them through, but they will have their own decisions and thoughts on that, but we have just got to make sure that when they initially arrive that the first days and hours that they have enough space to make a fully informed decision about how they go about what would no doubt be some media interest in their life.
JOURNALIST: Where will they be arriving from?
MINISTER PORTER: Where will they be arriving from I don’t have that information to hand but they will be arriving at Perth Airport.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: This family has come a little bit earlier than we had expected and there was a reason why some expedition was placed because of a medical concern. Nothing remarkable, but there was a medical concern which meant that they received some level of expedition but we had generally expected that the arrivals would have started in earnest in December and then pick up speed in January and February and that will still be the case, but this family happens to the be the first.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: As I said, there is a medical issue, not a matter of sort of enormous urgency, but it was enough to elevate them in terms of the list of people we were looking at.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: Well, fairly standard accommodation is how I would answer that question. I can’t go into any further details about that but there is temporary accommodation and very intense discussions with the family about what becomes more permanent in the weeks and months ahead. But, Perth. This family is going to, for all intents and purposes, be a Perth family and be re-settled here in Perth.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: Well, I guess there is two parts to that question. Do I have any concerns about the Australian public’s response to the arrival of the family and whether or not there are any concerns about the process? As to the first part of the question – I have no concern, problem or difficulty whatsoever in anticipating that the Australian public response will be, as it has always been with respect to this 12,000 cohort, and that is extremely positive. So there has been nothing other than immense generosity and positivity of the Australian people about this cohort of 12,000 people. The second part of the question is as to the nature of the process that brought this family here and how we will bring the other 12,000 people here under the Syrian cohort. There is a very, very significant difference between the processes that are applied within a circumstance that exist with a family in this position as opposed to the unlawful maritime arrivals that occurred under the previous Labor Government and indeed, when compared to largely unregistered refugees moving across borders in Europe. What I can say to you is that this family, like all the other families that will be assessed as part of this 12,000 person intake, is rigorously scrutinised and in fact there has been much criticism or at least some criticism about the fact that that scrutiny is rigorous. It does take some considerable period of time and sits on top of the time that families like this have already suffered post the Syrian civil crisis. So I have no concerns about the Australian people’s response because I think that the Australian people can be absolutely 100 per cent assured that the types of security, identity and health checks that go on for genuine refugee re-settlement such as this is are incredibly stringent.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: Well, the process. I can’t stress enough how rigorous the process is and the process involves security agencies, it involves every level of data management that we can muster to check identities to cross check identities. We are talking of course about people here who, in the case of this family, who have been in refugee camps for very long periods of time, so there is a very high level of ability of the Australian Government to assess them in a very rigorous way. There is nothing disorderly or fast about this process. It is slow, ponderous, rigorous and involves incredibly high levels of scrutiny.
QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST
MINISTER PORTER: Well, we deal with in excess of 13,000 humanitarian refugee arrivals every year, this is an additional 12,000 so it does place pressure on our services but the services are widely regarded to be world class – they don’t stop after a given period of time, they go on. They involve everything from health and trauma counselling if that is required to interface with government services, English language training and proficiency so it is a full wrap around model and we are very good at it actually, and it goes on for some period of time. So those normal processes will be applied to this family but no doubt everyone will be on their absolute toes to ensure that the service is at its sparkling best when we’ve got families like this who are coming in after long periods of being in very, very difficult circumstances.