White House says US will take up to 1,250 refugees under Australian deal

Tuesday 31 January 2017 15.53 EST
Last modified on Tuesday 31 January 2017 18.22 EST

The US government has publicly said it will resettle up to 1,250 refugees from Australia’s offshore detention islands of Manus and Nauru, but stressed they will all undergo “extreme vetting” before being accepted.

Sean Spicer, White House spokesman for the new president, Donald Trump, confirmed the deal – brokered by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama – would be honoured, and for the first time, confirmed the number that could be accepted under the plan.

“The deal specifically deals with 1,250 people, they’re mostly in Papua New Guinea, being held,” Spicer told a White House briefing. “Those people, part of the deal, is that they have to be vetted in the manner that we’re doing now.

“There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them as part and parcel of the deal that was made, and it was made by the Obama administration with the full backing of the United States government. The president, in accordance with that deal, to honour what had been agreed upon by the United States government … will go forward.”

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However shortly after the briefing the ABC reported Spicer had been contradicted by a White House source who said the president was still considering the deal.

The White House has been contacted for clarification.
A spokesman for the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the government “is dealing with the comments that have been made on the public record by the White House”.

Currently, there are about 1,600 people, refugees and asylum seekers, on Australia’s two offshore detention islands. Only refugees – those recognised as having a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country – will be considered for resettlement.

The deal with Australia does not commit the US to unconditionally accepting any number of refugees from Australia’s offshore detention island. The deal only commits the US to allowing refugees to “express an interest” in being resettled in America. Any, even all, refugees may be rejected during the “extreme vetting” process.

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The future of the deal has been the subject of intense speculation following Trump’s sweeping travel and immigration bans, which targeted seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Iranian refugees make up the largest cohort in both of the Australian-run offshore detention camps, there are also significant Iraqi, Sudanese and Somalian populations. There are a small number of Syrians.

The resettlement process is expected to take between six and 12 months. US authorities have visited both Nauru and Manus to outline the interview and vetting process.

Elaine Pearson, the director of Human Rights Watch Australia, urged caution, and said “anything can happen” in six to 12 months.

“While the US announcement sounds positive, we won’t be celebrating until people are physically out of Manus and Nauru and in safety,” she said.

“While we hope this ends well for some people on Manus and Nauru who have suffered so much, it’s sad that this has come at a cost of appeasing Trump and staying mute over a horrific discriminatory executive order which will have far-reaching global consequences.”

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Paul Stevenson on Australia’s immigration detention regime: ‘Every day is demoralising’Previously, neither the US nor the Australian government had committed to a number of refugees being resettled. Under questioning from the Senate when the deal was announced last November, the secretary of the immigration department, Mike Pezzullo, said the US commitment had been only to allow refugees on the offshore detention islands to “express an interest” in being resettled in the US under their established Resettlement Assistance Program.

“There is, within the arrangement that we have struck, an agreement that all the persons who fall within the definition can express an interest. Then the American government will decide, once they have reviewed the cases, how many people they will take.

So it is a process-driven arrangement rather than a numerical arrangement.”

Both Australian-run detention camps have been the subject of sustained criticism by the UN, human rights groups and other nations over systemic sexual and physical abuse of those detained, including rapes, beatings and the murder of one asylum seeker by guards; child sexual abuse; chronic rates of self-harm and suicide; dangerous levels of sustained mental illness, harsh conditions and inadequate medical treatment.

The latest government statistics indicate there are 871 men in detention on Manus Island and 373 people living in the regional processing centre on Nauru, a total of 1,254 people. However, that figure excludes the roughly 700 refugees who have been moved into the Nauruan community. The total number of people sent to offshore detention islands by Australia – and still on those islands – is currently about 1,900. (The numbers are difficult to ascertain definitively as refugees and asylum seekers are occasionally brought to Australia for serious medical issues, die, or choose to return to home countries).

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Representatives of the US government have visited both Nauru and Manus in recent months. They are expected back on the islands this month to begin the interviewing and vetting processes.

Documents distributed to those held on the islands say the application process is free for refugees and open to all “eligible individuals of any age, regardless of disabilities or other limitations”.

Refugees will be considered as family groups. People found not to be eligible for the resettlement program by the US Department of Homeland Security will have 90 days to appeal.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said the US resettlement deal was a “band-aid solution” for Australia’s offshore processing problem.

“On the one hand we now have some detail on the deal that the Australian government has refused to release. But it is only 1,250 people, far short of what’s going to be needed to resettle the people on Nauru and Manus. This has raised as many questions as it’s answered.

“There will be many, many people left behind by the US resettlement deal, the ball is squarely in the Australian government’s court.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...xtreme-vetting