Peter Dutton to inspect refugee vetting

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will scrutinise the selection of Syrian refugees when he visits a refugee camp in Jordan today.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will scrutinise the selection of Syrian refugees headed to Australia as part of the country’s $44 million expanded humanitarian program when he visits the Zaa­tari refugee camp in Jordan today.

While Australia’s migrant policy has hit the headlines following a controversial Amnesty Inter­national report and suggestions that asylum-seekers might be relocated to Kyrgyzstan, Mr Dutton will be in the Middle East to oversee the partnership with the UN and to see how Australia-bound refugees are being selected and vetted by Australian workers.

Australia is to provide 12,000 places on top of the existing intake of 13,750 to those considered most vulnerable. The first are due to arriv­e before the end of the year.

But European governments have warned Australian officials of an explosion in fake documents, especially Syrian passports which have been manipulated from genuine blank passports stolen from government authorities in Syria. The forgeries are indistinguishable from real Syrian passports because the black market gangs have even used stolen printers from government offices to manufacture new identities for people who can pay around $1500 to $2000.

Authorities at the Zaatari camp are increasingly concerned the camp is being used as a smuggling route for people to establish a new bona fide before moving on to another country.

The scale of the problem became obvious in Germany last month when customs officials intercepts thousands of Syrian passports, and in Bulgaria where more than 10,000 of the fake documents were uncovered by police.

Australian officials in embassies in Jordan and the nearby United Arab Emirates have been assessing the 83,000 refugees in the two Jordanian camps near the Syrian border, weeding out those who fail to meet strict security and health requirements. One in six in the Zaatari camp barely survive below the extreme poverty line.

Some of the 345,000 Jordan- based refugees staying outside the camp with relatives or independ­ently, as well as some in Turkey and Lebanon, will also be considered for Australian placements, especially if they have family or sponsored links through a registered Australian charity.

Mr Dutton will tour the 3½-year-old Zaatari camp, 8km from the Syrian border, which reached a peak in 2013 of more than 150,000 refugees but now accommodates fewer than 80,000.

The departure of more than 100 people a day has been fuelled either by increased migration to Western Europe or, lately, desperation to rejoin family in Syria because­ there is not enough food in the camp.

The tens of thousands of refug­ees line up each day for a ration of one slice of bread per person, one nappy for each child and gas vouchers for the coming winter.

The World Food Program temporarily had to stop support to many because of funding cuts last month.