The first of four Syrian families to personally receive Australian visas from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton during his visit to Jordan last month has begun life in Perth, as the federal government plans city and country placements for the rest of the special intake of 12,000 refugees fleeing Islamic State. 
Basher Kujah, a Sunni Muslim butcher from Homs, and his wife, Khaw-lah al-Ahdab, were subject to a slow and stringent vetting before they touched down in Australia overnight on Monday with their three children. The first refugee families were not due to arrive until early next month but the family has arrived ahead of others because the wife is approximately seven months pregnant.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter yesterday said the family, like others who will come after it, was subject to an assessment process that gave him confidence.
"It involves â€¦ our security and intelligence organisations. The health, security, background and character checks are absolutely rigorous, and because this is a slow and orderly process conducted offshore, we have all the time that we need and I can say that the process has not in any sense been rushed in any way," he said.
Mr Kujah asked Mr Porter's -office to publish a statement of thanks from the family. It read in part: "We would like to thank everybody for giving us a chance at happiness. I'd like to provide a good education for my children.
"My most important ambitions are to educate my kids well, to find safety, to get a job, and live in peace.
"From what I've seen just from the Australian embassy in Jordan, Australians are very fair and very kind, and I'm sure that I'll find the same treatment here as well." Mr Porter said the government was deliberately not revealing many details about the family.
"We are not being particularly expansive in the information, just to give the family a little bit of space and time upon arrival," he said.
Australia took 13,750 refugees as part of its humanitarian program last year but has pledged to take a further 12,000 this year from Syria and Iraq; in both countries Daesh is responsible for the mass murder of civilians including Muslims.
The Kujah family went to a hotel for a few hours' sleep after their flight before the Perth agency that helps refugees settle in, the Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre, helped them move into a house yesterday. Humanitarian settlement services manager Paul Rafferty said the family had been patient and had been relieved to receive visas at the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan in a ceremony -attended by Mr Dutton.
Mr Rafferty said the couple, in their 30s, had lived in the camp for "quite some years" after fleeing Homs. Their three children - a girl and two boys - were now -primary-school aged."The federal minister (Mr Dutton) flew over to actually present their approved visas," he said. "This for them was the hope they had had for many years, that a new life in Australia was a reality."