CANBERRA, Australia – An official says Australia rejected 500 Syrian refugees on security grounds during more than a year of vetting while it filled a quota of 12,000 the government said were eligible for resettlement from Middle Eastern camps.
Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said Thursday the deadly rampage near Britain's Parliament on Wednesday, in which a man used a knife and car as weapons to kill four people, showed Australia was right to be cautious on who it accepted.
The government announced in September 2015 that 12,000 refugees from the war in Syria and Iraq would be resettled as quickly as possible.
Five people died in London, including the assailant, and another 40 were injured in what British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned as a "sick and depraved terrorist attack."
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