Australia to send refugees to an America run by Donald Trump

The deal for an unspecified number of refugees held in offshore processing centres on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea was announced on Sunday with United States officials to begin vetting refugees this week.

It remains unknown how many refugees the USA will accept. Instead, any such arrivals are transferred to the Pacific islands, with the Australian government paying Nauru and Papua New Guinea (of which Manus is a part) to house the asylum seekers.

The Australian government says it has signed an agreement with the United States to resettle an unknown number of the refugees now being held at offshore Australian detention facilities to USA territory.

In February, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key also offered to assist Australia by resettling refugees on Nauru and Manus Island as the “sensible and compassionate” way forward.

But human rights groups have criticized the country for the condition of the offshore detention centers, as well as the length of time many people remain in them while their asylum applications are processed.

“There are options for people to go back to their countries of origin and if people have been found not to be refugees then this deal is not applicable to them”, he said.

The news of the USA deal comes amidst a new government crackdown on asylum seekers, which would see people who attempted to reach Australia by boat permanently banned from ever visiting Australia on any visa.

Refugees who arrive in the future would not be sent to the United States, he said.

Immigration department officials say they know nothing about a deal Australia announced on Sunday to send the refugees it is holding offshore to the US, throwing the future of Cambodia’s own multimillion-dollar deal with Australia for some of the same refugees into doubt.

However the deal is still light on detail, he pointed out, questioning whether families who had been split between mainland Australia and offshore detention would be reunited in the U.S.

But Turnbull said the “agreement was reached some time ago”.

Some have suggested people smugglers will use the deal as a ploy to bring more asylum seekers to Australia.

A veto would force Turnbull to search for another country willing to take them while facing growing outrage both at home and internationally over the treatment of the refugees.

While noting Australia’s detention policy had caused “immense harm to vulnerable people”, the UNHCR said it will endorse referrals made from Australia to the United States.

The deal comes two months after it was revealed that Australia would start accepting refugees from camps in Costa Rica.

Immigration Department Secretary Chief Michael Pezzullo told a parliamentary committee on Friday that “today we are closer than we were yesterday” to resettling asylum seekers from Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

The deal struck with the United States in the dying days of Barack Obama’s administration would see refugees that Australia had previously sent to Nauru and Manus Island being vetted by America for potential resettlement.

“We must celebrate that these children are now finally being given the opportunity to fulfil their full potential”.

Under the agreement, the migrants there will be assessed and the most vulnerable will be resettled in the US.