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Jordan: Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has walked the dusty streets of the world's second-biggest refugee camp and the sight of children who have lost their homes through war has reinforced his belief Australia's immigration policy is working as it should.
The minister visited Zaatari, a sprawling shanty town on a gravelly plain housing 79,000 refugees from Syria's conflict, in northern Jordan on Monday
He later stood within metres of the Syrian border, watching from a military checkpoint as on a nearby hill the Free Syrian Army builds a permanent transfer station for casualties of the regime's indiscriminate barrel bombs.
But the sight of children, many unschooled, some underfed, walking through Zaatari left an even bigger impression on Mr Dutton.
"The scenes of children who [are] innocent victims in a war really pull at your heartstrings," Mr Dutton said. "The fact that we see those kids' faces and the despair that they feel. Some are being educated and some aren't – I think that is a scene that stays with you."
This was why he has instructed his department to make women and children a priority in the recently expanded program to offer refugees a new home in Australia. Those who are displaced or have lost family members will be sought out to fill the extra 12,000 resettlement places announced in September, Mr Dutton said.
The extra places for Syrian (and other) refugees were only possible because of the government's turn-back-the-boats policy, Mr Dutton said.
"The fact that we have a tough border policy in Australia means that we can offer a helping hand and a new life to those Syrians," he said. "I am very proud of that. The lesson of today reinforces that we have made the right decision."
Australia needs to provide support to people who are displaced, he said. "That is exactly what Australia is doing. We are a very compassionate nation."
More than 45,000 Syrians injured during the conflict have come through the border checkpoint that Mr Dutton visited.
The Jordanian army's stone and concrete observation tower, flanked by a tank and car-mounted guns, is just 10 kilometres from Dara'a, which a week ago was reportedly targeted by Russian air strikes.
The town is under the control of the Free Syrian Army, Jordanian Brigadier-General Hasan Hayajne said. He regularly sees and hears fighting between the FSA and the regime.
"There were air strikes and air bombing, explosive barrels that land randomly on villages," he said. "As we all know after bombing and air strikes, for sure there will be casualties, FSA and civilians. We bring the civilians we receive in this location, we send them to our medical facility.
"It's always ongoing, the fighting."
Dara'a is also where former Manus Island detainee Eyad went, after Australian authorities persuaded the Syrian man to return home in August. Eyad told the ABC "they sent me back to my country to die".
A barrel bomb fell within 10 metres of his home, he said.
After visiting the border and looking over towards Dara'a, Mr Dutton said it made him realise how fortunate Australia was.
"Right behind us are people that are fleeing a terrible regime, people that have been injured, suffered serious blows from a war that in Australia we can't really relate to – it is very confronting.
"And the fact that the Jordanians here on the border open their arms up not only to the refugees but also to those people who have been seriously injured is a great credit to this country."
Australia has a "special obligation to help people in need", he said. "That is the balance we are trying to get right."
As well as the resettlement places, Australia has pledged another $44 million to the UNHCR which runs the program and offers support to refugees in the countries bordering Syria.
During Mr Dutton's visit to Zaatari an Australian-sponsored water tanker rattled through the shanty town streets.
One Syrian woman, visiting a shop on Zaatari's main street, said she had been at the camp for three years waiting to be processed for resettlement.
"It's better than before here," said Ahlam Ahme El Ayesh, a 30-year-old mother of three daughters and a son. "But we all want to go somewhere else. The weather here is unbelievable – very hot, and then freezing in the winter."
At first she wanted to wait for Syria to improve so she could go home. But now "we have to look for something better for ourselves", she said. "We need a future for our children."
She has applied for resettlement – perhaps to Australia (though she was worried that it is a long way from home), but "the process takes a long time".
Zaatari's population is at a two-year low. Most of the hundreds of thousands (by some estimates 1.5 million) Syrians in Jordan live out in the community, and others who passed through the camp have set off for Europe, or made the even more dangerous journey back to Syria.
One woman at Zaatari cried as she told Mr Dutton that her son had gone back to the family home in Syria – a home literally roofless and cracked to its foundations by the impact nearby of regime bombs.
He had gone back because he needed an operation that the Jordanians could not or would not provide. But he was afraid to go to a Damascus hospital for fear of being detained by the regime.
"He has got sick and can't work," she said of her son, wiping away tears. "We don't know what to do with him. He has a wife and two children there.
"He is still there, he is still very young, I am worried."
She also said there was not enough pressure on children to go to school in Zaatari. "If they can't read and write, how are they going to have a future?" she asked.
Saying goodbye to Mr Dutton, she told him to remember that "we are all siblings".
