Refugees coming to Australia from conflict in the Middle East will probably want to be resettled in metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne, the government says.
The federal government's refugee resettlement advisory council met in Canberra on Thursday to discuss plans to resettle 12,000 people fleeing Syria and Iraq.
"Many of the persecuted minorities that we are talking about have linkages in metropolitan Sydney and metropolitan Melbourne," parliamentary secretary Concetta Fierravanti-Wells told reporters after the meeting.
"Out intention is to get people out here as soon as we can but we need to do it in an ordered way," Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.
Preference will still go to women, children and families from persecuted minorities.
Once identified, they will go through various checks and an orientation process.
Only then does the settlement machinery kick in with officials looking for places for settlement. Assistance could continue for up to five years.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells said most people initially wanted to go where they had links, including friends and family ties.
But she said these refugees would arrive as permanent residents and could live wherever they chose.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the meeting Australia's commitment to resettle 12,000 additional refugees was critically important.
"I was discussing it with the secretary-general of the UN Ban Ki-Moon just a few moments and he expressed his really deep appreciation," he said.
NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes has acknowledged Sydney faces a chronic housing affordability problem.
But he says a one-off arrival of a large group of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the city's west and southwest is a drop in the ocean compared with growth projections for the next 15 years.
"I am not concerned about the capacity of the city to be able to deal with these sorts of problems or challenges," he told reporters on Thursday.
Former Howard government immigration minister Philip Ruddock said it would be better to disperse the newcomers.
"You want people to be part of your community, engaged within your community and if you bring people in and put them all in one place that dispersal is more difficult," he told Sky News.
Mr Ruddock said the people needed to be where there were appropriate support services.
"But I don't think you ought to do it all in one place," he said.
Share
