Australia’s commitment of 300 more troops to help train Iraqi fighters is pointless without more spending on humanitarian aid to stop the radicalisation of some of the 16m Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance, according to World Vision.
Australia has given $113m in aid to the Syrian refugee crisis since 2011, but World Vision chief executive Tim Costello said far more was needed.
“There is no point committing more troops if we don’t bomb them with aid, these refugee camps are breeding grounds for rebels and for Islamic State ... the threat of radicalisation is real,” Costello said.
“The best counter to the siren song of radicals is development and education ... Isil [Islamic State] does have to be challenged, but to think more troops is a solution without increasing our aid is misguided.”
After four years of violence, 16m Syrian people are now in need of humanitarian aid across the region – more than 70% of Syria’s pre-crisis population.
Costello said foreign minister Julie Bishop was “very aware” of the need to spend more.
The United Nations has said US$5.5bn in aid is needed to respond to the Syrian humanitarian crisis – but had raised only half of that. According to Oxfam, Australia’s “fair share” of the UN’s original demand would amount to almost $117m for 2014.
Tony Abbott announced on Tuesday that Australia would increase its existing commitment of 200 special forces soldiers assisting the Iraqi military and the 400-strong air force task group conducting air strikes with another 300 troops to work with New Zealand counterparts on a joint mission to train Iraqi military in the fight against Islamic State (Isis).
The defence minister, Kevin Andrews, said the decision was “not open-ended” and would be reviewed “from time to time”. Abbott suggested the new mission was likely to have a two-year timeframe with a review every 12 months.
A key indicator in those reviews would be the effectiveness of the armed forces, Abbott said, noting that the Iraqi regular army had “melted like snow in summer” in the face of the initial onslaught by Isis.
“What the Australian people want is security at home, but you can’t have security at home without doing your bit for security abroad, because it is the Daesh [Isis] death cult which is reaching out to us here in this country,” Abbott said.
The government cut $3.7bn from the aid budget late last year – on top of the $7.6bn cut in the May budget.
• Following a correction from World Vision this article was amended on 4 March 2015 to state Oxfam’s calculation of Australia’s ‘fair share’ of aid to Syria for 2014 not 2015.
