Manus Island and Nauru refugees to learn fate as US set to rule on resettlement
Refugees on Nauru and Manus Island will soon learn whether they have been accepted for resettlement in the US, with the first to receive final determinations Wednesday morning.
Refugees within both of the Australian-run offshore processing centres have been given appointment notices indicating the first meetings will begin in the morning.
The “US deal” – which involves, in return, Australia taking central American refugees currently under US control – was brokered 10 months ago by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and the then US president Barack Obama.
But no-one has yet been accepted for resettlement.
A spokeswoman for the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, declined to comment saying he would not be making a running media commentary about the US processes.
Hopes for the US deal had been fading on both islands, after the US reached its annual refugee resettlement cap and halted processing earlier this year, and President Donald Trump condemned the deal as “terrible” and “a dumb deal”.
The deal does not oblige the US to accept any refugees for resettlement, only to consider for resettlement up to 1,250. It is not known how many have passed America’s “extreme vetting” process.
Australia’s ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking Andrew Goledzinowski told the senate earlier this year the US deal would not resettle enough refugees to see the offshore detention camps closed.
“There will be a balance. There is no question in my mind that there will be some who won’t qualify or who will choose not to go to the US.”
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told the Guardian he was aware of a number of refugees on Nauru receiving appointment times. He said acceptance by the US for resettlement would be “welcome news” for refugees who received it. Most have been on the offshore islands more than four years.
“But however welcome it may be for some refugees, it is also a bitter reminder that the US deal was never the solution that Malcolm Turnbull pretended it to be. The deal does not provide places for all those who need it.
“The hundreds of people who will not be resettled by the US, will continue to be Australia’s responsibility. Their safety, and their future depends on the Australian government bringing them to the mainland.”
The Manus Island detention centre is slated for closure on 1 October and there is increasing pressure being brought to bear on refugees held there, with buildings shut, medical and other services scaled back and withdrawn, cigarettes banned, and power and water
shut off, in an effort to encourage resettlement within PNG.
The Nauru processing centre does not have a proposed closure date. But the President of Nauru, Baron Waqa, reaffirmed his country’s position that no refugees would be allowed to permanently resettle in Nauru.
He told the Pacific Islands Forum this month: “we would love to see them find a home, and they will, and they will. They can’t stay on Nauru forever, we’ve made that clear right from the start.”