Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he is confident a refugee resettlement deal with the United States will go ahead, despite White House comments which seemed to cast doubt about its future under a Trump administration.In 2013 Australia wisely passed legislation that establishes the refusal of admittance to all refugees who arrive in Australia by boat. But they keep on coming, so now Australia has over a thousand Muslim refugees from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Africa, and Asia that it won’t admit to its country. White House deputy spokesman Eric Schultz was quizzed about the agreement to take in asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru and security concerns about the group. He said the deal would be dealt with “one president at a time”.
“The commander-in-chief, this president, sets the policies,”
-he said.
“The president-elect, Donald Trump, will set the policies once he takes the oath of office.”
The U.S. has agreed to resettle an unspecified number of unwanted refugees, deemed “illegal” because they arrived by boat, languishing in Australia’s offshore processing camps on Pacific Ocean islands Nauru and Manus Island. The number, yet to be confirmed, will be part of the annual refugee quota of the U.S. versus an extra undertaking. According to Australian Department of Immigration figures, as of Sept. 30, there were 396 refugees and asylum seekers in Nauru and 873 on Manus Island.
Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, said it was very clear the deal Australia struck with the US was not airtight.
“The announcement was very hastily put together because they weren’t expecting Trump to win and then it came very clear the whole deal could roll over,”
-he said.
Mr. Trump, who moves into the White House in 48 days, said he will “suspend immigration from regions where it cannot be safely processed”.
