Peter Dutton handed 4 refugee families their Australian visas. And they're pretty happy about it.

“It [is] like out of misery I am being born again.”

It was a very happy day for four families who have fled their war-torn homes.

They were the first of the 12,000 refugees, who will resettle in Australia under our temporarily-expanded resettlement program, to be handed their refugee visas.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton welcomed the relieved families, 12 children among them, at a ceremony in Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday, the ABC reports.

A beautiful ceremony today in Jordan.. 4 Syrian & Iraqi refugee families received their visas to Australia! @abcnews pic.twitter.com/gwHUJHLsHW

— Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) November 3, 2015

Our country’s newest residents include Sunni Muslim refugees from Syria and Assyrian Christians from the Islamic State-occupied city of Mosul in Iraq. Bashar Abdul Kader Kujah, a 30-year-old Syrian butcher, said he thought Australia was beautiful after searching pictures on the Internet. “Whatever they want from me, I will follow all the rules… and anything that’s asked of me I will be ready to do,” he said. “I will be so happy there. It [is] like out of misery I am being born again.”

Bashar, father of 3 from Homs, Syria. “I had a look on the internet & it seems like a beautiful country” #comingtoOZ pic.twitter.com/J4G4AYcQrh — Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) November 3, 2015

Khawlah Al Ahdab, a 23-year-old mother, said she and her family had lived in fear in the western Syrian city of Homs “and we were afraid for our children.”

“If they got sick we couldn’t take them to doctors or hospitals,” she said.

“It became very difficult for us to live there. There were no schools for them to be educated.

“I hope my life is about to get better and I can find education for my children and for us. Thanks so much for accepting us.”

Happy days for the new Australian residents – who are expected to arrive in the country by Christmas.

Four families safe, thousands more to go.