Australia seeks quick refugee accord before Trump takes office

Australia is seeking to send as many as 1,800 refugees to the United States as part of a purported deal with the Obama administration in light of Donald Trump’s election as the new US President.

On Friday, Australia’s Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne stated that there was still time to conclude the deal before Trump takes office in January.

Throughout his electoral campaign the president-elect has adopted a hard stance on immigration, threatening to construct a wall along the US border with Mexico, and block Muslims from entering the US.

Australia is hopeful that a deal with Washington would enable the country to close controversial immigration detention centres located on the Pacific island of Nauru and Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea. Observers have been heavily critical of living standards made available to asylum seekers in the centres which have been described as Australia’s version of “Guantanamo Bay”.

Speaking on Friday, Pyne said that the Australian government would “dearly love to see Nauru and Manus empty”.

For months Australia’s conservative government has claimed to be in talks with unnamed countries to resettle refugees currently based in Nauru and Manus, most of who come from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

The issue has become more pressing since April when Papua New Guinea ordered the closure of Manus, after the country’s highest court ruled that hundreds of asylum seekers were being held illegally on the island by Australia.
 
Australia has adopted a strict border blockade policy and currently insists that no boat-borne aslum seekers will be settled in the country.

During a September visit to the US, Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that talks were underway with the Obama administration for the resettlement, in Australia, of displaced peoples from Central America currently based in US-supported camps in Costa Rica, in exchange for Australia’s Pacific island refugees.

Speaking at that time Turnbull praised Obama “for bringing us together to pledge new commitments to support the world’s most vulnerable people” without actually pledging to accept any additional refugees into Australia.

To date no figure within the Obama camp has publically commented on the talks. However, The Wall Street Journal noted on Friday that at least one Australian newspaper had predicted that a deal could be announced as soon as this weekend, while a source within Australia’s immigration office told the American daily that both the US and Canada were involved in talks with Canberra.

Australia has faced considerable international criticism for its rigorous attempts to deter illegal immigration, which has included blocking ships attempting to enter Australian waters, while rights groups and the UN have repeatedly slammed conditions in Nauru and Manus where refugees have committed suicide due to frustration at their status, and, incidents of both physical and, reprotedly, sexual abuse have taken place.
 
Canberra has said that it will increase Australia’s humanitarian intake to 18,750 by 2018-19 but that none of this number will be made up of asylum seekers currently based in Nauru and Manus.