The father of a Syrian family who are the first of 12,000 refugees to be resettled in Australia says they've been treated with fairness and kindness, and expect that will continue.
The family of five are from Homs in western Syria and had been living in a camp for several years, but their arrival was brought forward as the mother is seven months pregnant.
In a statement issued by the office of Social Services Minister Christian Porter, the father thanked the Australian embassy in Jordan for their help.
"From what I've seen ... Australians are very fair and very kind, and I'm sure that I'll find the same treatment here as well," he said.
"We would just like to thank everybody for giving us a chance at happiness."
He said providing a good education for his children was among his top priorities.
"My most important ambitions are to educate my kids well, to find safety, to get a job, and live in peace."
Mr Porter said the goal was to move Syrian refugees off of welfare and into the workforce.
"This father is very keen to do that," he told ABC radio.
Commenting after their arrival in Perth overnight, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Australia's security checks were among the world's most rigorous.
"We can, before they take off, have months looking at their individual applications, we take biometric samples, we take fingerprint samples, we check that against known databases, we have people who are experts in checking documentation to make sure that it's not fraudulent," Mr Dutton told 6PR.
"So I think we do it as well as anyone in the world and we minimise the risk absolutely.
"If we have any hesitation with a particular application, we discard it and move onto the next one.
"We don't wait for people to arrive and work out of there is a problem.
"National security remains our absolute priority."
Share
