Australia readying trip for 50 refugees to U.S.

CANBERRA, Australia — The first 50 refugees to be resettled in the U.S. under a contentious agreement with Australia will receive notice within days about their impending departure from the Pacific island camps where they have languished for years, the Australian prime minister said Wednesday.

The administration of former President Barack Obama agreed to accept as many as 1,250 of Australia’s refugees — mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka — in a deal that some saw as repayment for Australia’s acceptance of Honduran and Salvadoran refugees from a camp in Costa Rica under a U.S.-led resettlement program.

President Donald Trump described the deal as “dumb” but has agreed to honor it, subject to the “extreme vetting” of refugees.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the first group of around 50 refugees, kept by Australia on the impoverished nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea, will soon be notified that they have been accepted by the United States.

“President Trump had some reservations about it, but nonetheless he is honoring the commitment made by his predecessor, and I want to thank you for doing so,” Turnbull told the Seven Network news outlet.

Turnbull said he did not know how many more refugees the United States will take.

“It’s all subject to the United States’ very, very thorough vetting, their extreme vetting,” Turnbull said. “It is entirely up to the United States as to how many are taken.”

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul, an Australia-based advocate, said refugees in the camps were “a bit surprised” by the news that decisions were pending.

“Some people had given up hope that it would happen,” Rintoul said.

Australia will not settle any refugees who try to arrive by boat — a policy that the government says dissuades asylum seekers from attempting the dangerous and sometimes deadly ocean crossing from Indonesia.

Australia instead pays Papua New Guinea and Nauru to house asylum seekers in camps that have been plagued by reports of abuse and draconian conditions. Some of the more than 2,000 asylum seekers have been in the island camps for more than four years.

The Australian government earlier expressed disappointment that refugees were prevented from resettling in July because the United States had already reached its refugee limit of 50,000 for the current fiscal year. The new fiscal year starts next month.