Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Syrian crisis began five years ago today, with all parties to the conflict having committed war crimes and human rights violations during this time. Around half a million people have lost their lives and 11 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including more than 4.5 million refugees.

This morning I attended the launch of the exhibition 'Syria: the faces behind five years of crisis', a collaborative effort across a number of international NGOs including Amnesty International, CARE, UNICEF, World Vision, the Australian Red Cross, Caritas, Oxfam, Save the Children and Transform Aid. The exhibition reminds us that behind these staggering statistics are the faces of real people, their families and the lives they have lost.

Despite the recent cessation of hostilities and peace talks, the situation on the ground in Syria remains dire for millions of people, with many struggling to survive without access to lifesaving humanitarian aid as a consequence of actions of warring parties and insufficient funding for humanitarian appeals. Most people who have fled Syria have found themselves in overcrowded and underresourced refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey or in limbo in muddy makeshift camps on the wrong side of barbed wire fences in Europe.

I urge the Australian government to significantly increase our financial contributions to the humanitarian effort in Syria and to refugee-hosting countries in the region, to increase our diplomatic efforts to demand that all parties to the conflict abide by the rules of war and protect civilians, to accelerate the resettlement of the 12,000 Syrian refugees to Australia and to consider increasing our refugee intake.