Oz firm on refugee quota, but will admit more Syrians

<g data-gr-id="26">Australian PM Ton</g>y Abbott said on Sunday the government would welcome a higher portion of Syrian refugees amid Europe’s humanitarian crisis, but would not increase its annual refugee intake. 

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of people seeking safe-havens, many from war-torn Syria, with the human cost of the crisis reflected in images of Syrian toddler <g data-gr-id="17">Aylan</g> <g data-gr-id="18">Kurdi</g> whose body washed up on a Turkish beach.

Canberra takes a hardline stance against asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat, with Abbott saying Friday that tough policies were needed to stop drownings at sea.

The prime minister said he was moved by photographs of the three-year-old and was sending Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to Geneva late Sunday for talks with the UN refugee agency UNHCR, amid a growing domestic push to address the crisis. But despite calls from opposition parties Labor and Greens for an increase in the refugee intake, Abbott said the annual 2015-16 quota, at 13,750, would remain the same. “We are disposed to take more people from that troubled region under our refugee and humanitarian programme, and we are open to providing more financial assistance to the UNHCR,” he told reporters in Canberra. He declined to specify how many more would be accepted, but said Australia took in almost 4,500 refugees from Iraq and Syria last year and “we are prepared to take significant numbers this year given the ongoing crisis and its scale”.

The focus would be on families, women and children residing in camps “on the edges of Syria”, Abbott <g data-gr-id="50">said,</g> particularly from persecuted minorities.