The Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement that it will contribute $20 million for the schooling of Syrian refugee children but says Australia’s annual humanitarian intake of refugees should be lifted from 13,700 in response to the crisis.
Lyle Shelton, the ACL’s managing director, said that with 2.7 million people displaced from the country and a death toll of 140,000, the situation in Syria is “one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises since World War II”. He said that while the move to fund schooling is commendable, more needs to be done.
“We are a prosperous country by comparison and have a moral responsibility to provide greater aid to those suffering around the world, especially given the large number of people displaced in this instance,” he said, noting that previously announced cuts to overseas aid would also “restrict our ability to respond”.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that Australia would be putting $20 million into a joint initiative involving Australia, the US, UK and UN earlier this week which aims to provide schooling for almost a million Syrian children who have fled their home country.
The UN say that more than half of the 2.7 million people who have fled Syria are children and that 70 per cent of them are not attending school.
Reports this week have suggested Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon were all struggling to cope with the number of Syrian refugees crossing their borders.
