Australian town in refugee U-turn

By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney

Australia says it is committed to settling refugees from Sudan

Councillors in Australia's most famous musical city have reversed a controversial decision to reject refugees from Sudan.

Officials in Tamworth, which hosts an annual country music festival, had earlier said they could carry disease.

They said they could not to cope with potentially traumatised people who had fled civil unrest.

Following an emergency meeting, the five Sudanese families have been allowed to settle in the town.

Tamworth is already home to about 25 Sudanese.

They arrived a year ago and most work in local abattoirs doing jobs that many locals are not willing to do.

The Australian government is resettling more refugees from Sudan than from any other country, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mean-spirited

When the mayor of Tamworth insisted that the refugees could cause trouble and possibly bring disease into the town, the councillors rejected a request from Australia's immigration department to resettle five Sudanese families as part of a pilot scheme.

The decision caused dismay and anger. It prompted an emergency council debate in Tamworth and public pressure has helped to bring about this U-turn.

Many residents were horrified that their prosperous city should be portrayed as so mean-spirited.

Tamworth is the capital of Australian country music.

Its annual festival starts this week and there were fears that the refugee debate would overshadow this famous event.