Australia rejects 500 Syrian and Iraqi refugees

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Australia has turned down more than 500 refugees from Syria and Iraq on security grounds, a minister says. Some 12,000 Syrians were found eligible for resettlement in the country.

More than 500 Syrian and Iraqi refugees have been refused entry to Australia during more than a year of vetting, with 12,000 other Syrians being found eligible for resettlement, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said on Thursday.
Dutton was quoted by national broadcaster ABC as saying that the number of refusals was "startling." He said the screening process had been based on intelligence provided by several countries, including the USA, Britain and Canada.

The minister said the attack near Britain's Parliament on Wednesday, in which an assailant with suspected links to Islamist terrorism killed three people and wounded dozens more using a car and a knife before being shot dead, justified the Australian government's decision to be very selective about who it let into the country.

"The tragic events in London and elsewhere demonstrate the government's approach was prudent, and there are people that we'd excluded on national security grounds and people that we do have concerns about that we have not brought to our country and we never will."