US to take 50 of our refugees

ABOUT 50 refugees in Australia’s offshore detention centres have passed America’s “extreme vetting” and will be resettled in the US in coming weeks.

It comes just six weeks before the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea is due to close.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thanked US President Donald Trump for honouring the deal with the Obama administration and said about 25 refugees from both Manus Island and Nauru would be resettled.

The deal had been the subject of their testy phone call in January, just days after the President’s inauguration.

“This is good news,” Mr Turnbull told Channel 7’s Sunrise program yesterday.

But there are questions over how many more of the 1600 refugees on Manus Island and Nauru who have applied for resettlement will be accepted.

The White House has previously said the deal is to resettle 1250 refugees, if they pass the nation’s vetting processes.

Mr Turnbull told Sunrise the 50 refugees who had been accepted were just the first to be resettled.

He did not specify how many more would be accepted.

“It is all subject to the United States’ very, very thorough vetting – their extreme vetting,” he said.

“But we look forward to more.”