First group of refugees leaves Oz for US

Sydney, Sept. 26: A first group of refugees left Australia’s remote Pacific detention camps for the United States on Tuesday to be resettled under a deal that angered President Donald Trump.

Twenty-four asylumseekers held on Manus Island off mainland Papua New Guinea flew to Manila en route to an undisclosed American location, the US embassy in Port Moresby said.

“They’re the first group that have been approved, that have gone through the extreme vetting process and have met all the requirements for resettlement,” said the embassy’s public affairs officer Beverly Thacker. About another 30 refugees held on Nauru in the Pacific will head to the US “in the coming days”, she added. Canberra sends asylum-seekers who try to enter the country by boat to processing facilities on Nauru and Manus Island, with those found to be refugees barred from resettling in Australia.

Conditions in the camps have been widely condemned by rights groups and medical professionals.

Thacker did not provide the nationality of the those being transferred and it is not clear how many of those still remaining will qualify for US resettlement.

“We expect that other refugees will be resettled in the coming months,” she said. Nearly 800 men are held on Manus, and 371 men, women and children are detained on Nauru, according to Australian immigration data as of July 31.