Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation's field visit to Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, and ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Leave granted.

This was the inaugural visit of its type by the Australian parliament. The visit was of a format designed to allow myself and the Opposition Whip, Mr Hayes, to explore and examine a particular issue. This issue was really not one, as we thought about how a field visit might progress, that would be described as a jolly or a junket to a European destination, or to talk with our close friends in the United States; this was to look at a very significant humanitarian issue of concern facing this world right now.

The theme of the visit was about asylum seekers and to have an understanding of the current conflicts in Syria and Iraq, which have resulted in the movement of large numbers of people into their neighbouring countries. We had the opportunity of visiting Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, and to see the impact that this crisis is having in those countries. You will find an acknowledgement of the very large numbers of people involved, those serving the international community, those involved in the governments of the respective countries and our officials that we met in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. I found this extraordinarily insightful and I am glad we had the opportunity at the end of last year on our return to hold a forum and to brief members on this conflict.

The conflict began only some four years ago and it has had an enormous impact. Something in the order of 191,000 have been killed as a result of this conflict. As at November last year, an estimated 10.6 million to 10.8 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria, and this included approximately 6.5 million people internally displaced, and another 2.9 to 3.2 millions Syrians registered and awaiting registration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the adjoining countries.

This conflict has led to an extraordinary increase in the numbers of refugees and displaced people. When you look at the comparative figures and the way in which they have increased, we have seen from 2010 the UNHCR reporting 33.9 million people of concern globally. When you look at this particular conflict, it has added to those numbers so significantly that they have gone to 46.3 million people of concern.

In this report, you will find some very insightful discussions about resolving this crisis. The conclusion that we have drawn is that there is unlikely to be any quick resolution. This problem is going to continue and there are various suggestions as to how you might be able to deal with it. But I think people need to understand that it has reached such a crisis point now that adjoining countries like Lebanon and Jordan, and even Turkey, are looking at closing their borders, restricting the opportunities for people to flee. Turkish officials have been talking about trying to create safe zones in Syria, which they describe as no-fly buffer zones, to which people might flee. Approaches like this are hardly likely to have any impact.

If members read the report, they will find some interesting photographs, showing how close we got to situations of potential danger. But these are risks that are facing millions of people in this area everyday. One of the issues we have looked at is not only how the international community should be responding to this situation—a situation which I think is almost out of sight, out of mind to most Australians. But with the prospect of borders being closed in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, the international community is going to have ask how is it going to continue to see a situation where people can seek sanctuary. I was a minister at the time when Australia had to look at this same sort of issue in relation to the Balkans and what was happening in Kosovo. Members may remember that because of the prospect of borders being closed in Albania, the international community, in order to encourage it to still receive people, had to recognise that there was a need for potential burden sharing.

One of the recommendations that my colleague and I have made in this report is that the delegation does recommend that the Australian government explore, with international partners, a Kosovo-type solution for providing medium-term protection for displaced people in the Middle East. From my own experience in sitting down and talking to young people in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey who had fled, they were still saying, 'Our objective is to be able to return home.' But unless there is some immediate prospect of people being able to return home, that is highly unlikely. If borders are likely to be closed, the international community has to look further at how it may be able to respond to these issues.

We have highlighted in this report the problem that children, and so many of the people who have fled are children, are facing. You will find in the report some of the schools that we visited and the situations where the international community is responding, but what the report does bring out is that they are only a small proportion of the young people displaced. We are likely to see generations of young people denied formal education because they have had to flee and the international community and neighbouring countries have not been able to put in place appropriate arrangements. This prompted us to look at the question of the way in which Australia might be able to help, and the delegation recommends that the Australian government acknowledge the value and importance of education for child refugees and work with its international partners to support efforts to provide free and effective education to child refugees in the Middle East.

It is not enough to expect that Lebanon is going to be able to take refugee children when you understand that Lebanon, with a population of a little over three million people, has 1½ million refugees. Just imagine if, in every one of our schools tomorrow, for every student we had possibly another student from a refugee background entering the school who needed assistance. Just imagine what pressure it would put on our institutions. These countries are facing enormous problems in being able to respond in a positive way to this situation.

The report details something of the way in which the countries that we have mentioned have been responding, but it highlights the need for further international support for Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, which are under such horrific pressure. We recommend that the Australian government do its part in sharing the burden of the crisis in the Middle East and make appropriate commitments in the upcoming UNHCR pledging conference because these particular countries are going to need support.

I have travelled extensively in this region before and I know something of Lebanon, something of Jordan and something of Turkey, and the extent to which people in these surrounding countries are burdened needs to be acknowledged and understood. We are not experiencing people seeking to flee to Australia as asylum seekers as a result of this issue, but it should not in any way diminish our willingness to respond to this report and to look at ways and means in which Australia can help those countries, who are particularly burdened at this time.

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