First wave of refugees to US from Pacific camps imminent

SYDNEY – 20 September 2017: A first wave of refugees will leave remote Pacific detention camps and be resettled in the United States in coming weeks, Australian authorities said Wednesday, under a deal that has rankled President Donald Trump.

Canberra sends asylum-seekers who try to enter the country by boat to processing facilities on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, with those found to be refugees barred from resettling in Australia.

They are instead relocated to third countries, or resettled elsewhere in PNG.

The Australian government struck a deal with Washington under former president Barack Obama to resettle some of them in the United States in return for taking an unspecified number of asylum-seekers from Central America.

Doubts over the arrangement surfaced after Trump took office and attacked it as a "dumb deal" in a heated phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, before begrudgingly agreeing to honour it.

New concerns were raised in July by the sudden withdrawal from PNG of American officials assessing the refugees, days after the US passed its annual 50,000-refugee intake cap.

But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the first group were expected to depart PNG and Nauru "in coming weeks".

"The refugees will receive notification of the outcome of their application to resettle under the US Refugee Admissions Programme in coming days," he said.

"Processing of other individuals continues and further decisions by US authorities are expected in due course.

"As we have made clear from the outset the resettlement arrangements will take time and will not be rushed."

Turnbull added to Channel Seven television that this was the "first stage".

"About 25 from both Manus and Nauru will be going to the United States. I just want to thank again President Trump for continuing with that arrangement," he said.

"It's all subject to the United States' very, very thorough vetting, their extreme vetting.

"But we look forward to more refugees, people who have been judged to be refugees on Nauru and Manus, to be taken to the United States."

Nearly 800 men are being held on Manus, and 371 men, women and children are detained on Nauru, according to Australian immigration data as of July 31.

The camps' conditions have been widely criticised by refugee advocates and medical professionals, who say some asylum-seekers suffer from mental health problems due to their prolonged detention.

A PNG court ruled last year that holding people on Manus was unconstitutional, and Canberra is set to shut the camp in October.